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August 13, 2012
EMerge Alliance Brings Sustainability, Flexibility to Appliance Deployment
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor
The amount of power used by data centers has been a well covered topic in recent years. As new centers are built and appliance solutions are selected, some are calling for 380V DC equipment as the way to keep IT processes sustainable for the future.
According to this NEI (News - Alert) blog post, the federal government has already called for a two percent reduction in energy usage per year, and a relatively new group is looking to bring some sense to the methods by which power is handled in the IT environment. EMerge Alliance came together less than five years ago in an effort to standardize the use of DC power in commercial building applications.
EMerge Alliance brings together many pieces of the puzzle - from building owners to power distribution installers - to achieve continuity.
One of the Alliance’s primary initiatives is coming up with hybrid AC/DC power solutions and standardizing DC power architecture. Many data centers are applying more “green” technologies, from wind to solar power, and utilizing other architectural efficiencies.
The end result of converting to DC power and hybrid AC/DC is creating a less complex system as well as saving energy costs and reducing the carbon footprint.
One reason to start adopting DC power is that AC does not work well with computers. There are several steps in taking the main AC power and converting it to DC. By the time the power reaches the server, it has gone through many step-downs, which creates heat and is fairly inefficient.
Japan has adopted 380V DC systems with success, and some European countries are seeing equal success rates. Companies in the U.S. now have good examples to look to in establishing 380V DC systems in the data center.
Duke Power recently disclosed in a study that IT data centers are saving upwards of 20 percent when they convert to a 380V DC power platform. One of the members of the EMerge Alliance is NEI, a server manufacturer that provides DC-powered servers designed to improve efficiency in appliance deployment.
NEI’s DC-powered series is energy-efficient enough to be considered a green technology and conforms perfectly to the Alliance’s mission. It is capable of 20 percent better efficiency than other rack mount servers on the market and aims to address power concerns for those companies managing significant amounts of data.
The demand for energy efficiency in the process is not likely to wane, creating opportunities for providers like NEI to continue to expand their reach with innovative solutions.
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Edited by Jamie Epstein
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