Managing Data Center Power and Cooling for Greater Efficiency

 

As evidence, a Ziff-Davis Survey found that 71 percent of IT decision makers are dealing with or tracking issues related to power consumption and cooling, while 63 percent are increasing electrical power capacity or expanding the size of the data center. As these trends continue to develop, data center managers will need to weigh the impact of each investment on the power and cooling profile of their facility, according to a recent white paper.

 

Currently the three-year costs of power and cooling in the U.S. are roughly equivalent to the acquisition cost of data center capital equipment, the IDC (News - Alert) reported. Further, with the demand for computing power and the cost of electrical power continuing to escalate, power can be expected to consume a larger share of IT budgets, possibly as much as 50 percent in the next few years.

 

In addition to measures that maximize power efficiency for hardware devices, there are also software strategies, such as server virtualization, that can play a significant role in reducing power consumption. According to industry experts, there are several potential benefits that can come from an increased focus on power consumption and power efficiency:

 

• Extending the life of existing data centers and minimizing retrofits;

• Gaining at least partial control of growing expenses for power and cooling; and

• Optimizing new data center designs.

 

Until now, IT staff has typically focused on the escalation of computing power and storage capacity, coupled with smaller form factors for servers and storage devices, and the strains they are placing on the power and cooling facilities of the data center. In addition to industry alliance and standards efforts, there are a number of technologies and strategies available to allow data center managers to improve the power efficiency of existing data centers and optimize the power and cooling designs of new data centers.