Michael Harding
Sr. Product Marketing Manager

The world is recognizing that data centers are big users of energy, and many corporations are now dealing with a crisis in power usage, power cost, or both.

A Gartner group survey found 70 percent of CIOs are concerned about power and cooling. In addition, Gartner expects energy-related IT spending to double in the next five years. That means half your IT hardware investment may be associated with energy, heating, and cooling. If it isn't already, Green IT will be an important topic in 2008.

There's a wealth of information on green or sustainable computing available from many sources. It's difficult to know where to start, but one good approach is to evaluate each option in terms of its immediacy and impact.

Here are four major approaches you can take to 'green' your IT effort. They are not mutually exclusive. You might start with the low-hanging fruit that you can execute on today, and lead up to the more capital-intensive options that deliver longer-term benefits.

Four major approaches to Greener IT

1. An easy first step is some basic cooling and system configuration changes. Many organizations are becoming aware that they are running their data centers too cold. Computers can be operated safely 3 to 4 degrees warmer than they are currently in many data centers, and this can be an easy and valuable adjustment to make. Another relatively easy fix is to use the power efficiency features that already come with your systems, either as part of the hardware management or operating system software. Optimizing these settings will reduce energy usage by powering-down and hibernating more often than in the default energy scheme.
   
   
2. The next most immediate change, and one with a greater payback, is to deploy software solutions enabling server and storage consolidation. This includes software for virtualization, automated storage tiering, data deduplication, clustering, and advanced workload management.
   
   This has several benefits. First, it reduces hardware requirements, and the related energy consumption. This in turn reduces the heat in the data center, and the load on your HVAC systems. Finally, you'll realize labor and maintenance cost savings from having less hardware to administer. These projects can be preceded or combined with application rationalization and standardization efforts so that you are maximizing efficiency around fewer, more strategic applications and tool sets.
   
   
3. The third approach is to upgrade to the latest hardware. This is more costly than the first two options, but can yield even greater results. Newer computers and monitors, especially those with Energy Star ratings, are more energy efficient that older ones. This should also be true for storage.
   
   In addition, new classes of storage such as MAID (Massive Array of Idle Disks) are even more energy efficient, and can be used effectively within a data lifecycle management program. Understandably, this approach, while yielding measurable power savings, would need to be implemented within an established technology refresh cycle for most companies.
   
   
4. Finally you can undertake data center redesign and/or consolidation. Depending on earlier application and server
   consolidation success, you may be able to reduce the number of data centers you are running. Or you may choose to outsource data center management to a managed services partner who can do it more efficiently on a global scale.

For the data centers you choose to run yourself, it might make sense to hire an engineering firm that can help you improve airflow management, electrical infrastructure and other facility elements. Consultants employ computer fluid dynamics models to optimize chilled air throughput and minimize hot spots. Rack schemes can be changed to accommodate 'hot' and 'cold' aisles, and physical plant changes can be made to address static pressure and condensation. This is typically a multi-year program, relatively expensive, and will most likely incur downtime to the data center operations. Ideally you should combine major data center improvements with physical data center migrations.

All of the approaches discussed here complement and build upon each other. Start down the path to a greener IT effort today, and realize the benefits of power conservation, server and storage efficiency, and sustainable computing.

Stay tuned for subsequent articles focused on Green IT. In an upcoming piece, Mike talks about how software can help you save energy.