Traditionally, data center managers have been more focused on server uptime and availability than efficient use of resources. Is your data center using more energy than it needs to? Are you interested in extending the life of your data center? A number of changes in technology and in data center best practices make now the perfect time to focus on energy efficiency in your organization. Read on for tips and insights into how better management of your energy and technology resources can save your organization money.
Static No More
Data centers were typically designed to deal with static loads, but with the trend toward virtualization, that’s really not the case anymore. Virtualized systems can be moved around relatively easily, so you’ll need to reconcile virtual machines with the physical layer, making sure you’re cooling and not overpowering a section of the data center. The energy costs for running a data center are typically an organization’s highest costs, and becoming energy efficient is now also a top priority.
Why Add More to Your Plate?
When availability is your number one goal, why is now the time to start aiming for energy efficiency? First of all, in the past 5-7 years, energy costs have risen quite a bit. Second, data center monitoring has become more intuitive – we can really see what assets are using the most energy and work out a plan from there to reduce those. By installing energy-efficient systems in your data center, you not only decrease your energy costs, but you also increase the life of your data center – saving you money in two areas and furthering your number one goal: availability.
Data Center Infrastructure Management
This wasn’t a term you heard even five years ago, but now that best practices have evolved, deploying a data center infrastructure management product is becoming more and more common. With that tool in place, you can monitor your current data center setup and also run simulations for data center updates that will tell you the impact on power, cooling, and breaker space, which is really powerful information when you’re trying to make your data center more efficient. And when your data center is energy-efficient, your equipment lasts longer, and you can realize about a 20-35% cost savings, according to Gartner. Good news all around.
If you’re interested in more information about energy savings in the data center, you can download a white paper that explains it in more depth.
