FOCUS ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Issue 3, April 2009
the vendor’s Insight Power Manager (IPM) product: “It is an integrated power monitoring and management application that can help cap off the power used in a data center,” he says. “It is constantly being evolved and now offers Dynamic Smart Cooling.”
Dodsworth says the vendor is soon to announce new products aimed at helping data centers make decisions on energy use. “The sort of speed of development we’ve come to expect from IT solutions generally is now being replicated in the design and development of facilities,” he says.
EFFICIENCY HEALTHCHECK Dodsworth outlines how HP’s work in energy control will usually start with a thorough healthcheck. “HP Critical Facilities Services offers a range of energy-effi ciency assessments, from thermal modelling to the optimal effi ciency of electrical and mechanical elements,” he says. “Engineers will look at a facility with a fi ne tooth comb, typically over a few days, and produce a plan to help drive up energy effi ciency.”
Dodsworth says HP tackles the energy issue from other angles too. “There are constant IT developments to make our servers more effi cient, focusing on the energy delivered per watt of energy,” he says.
Cisco also claims to be hardwiring energy effi ciency into its products, particularly its Catalyst switching range. “Our 2900 and 3700 switches support our EnergyWise strategy,” says Ian Foddering, senior systems
engineering manager at Cisco. “EnergyWise is a feature coded into the range. It’s free and can be confi gured like any other feature of the Cisco IOS. By the end of 2009, it will feature in the 4500 range, too, then next year in the 6500 series.”
REDUCE COSTS AND ENERGY USE Foddering says that EnergyWise is about measuring and reducing energy used by a range of devices on the network. “Phase one is devices like the IP phone and wireless access point – powering them down when not in use to reduce cost, energy consumed and greenhouse gases produced,” he says.
“The next phase will be devices such as PCs, laptops and printers. It’s something that can be integrated into building control systems, so systems that previously operated as silos can be controlled. This will include lighting, heating, ventilation and airconditioning, making for a truly intelligent building. I don’t think anyone apart from Cisco is embedding this much on the network itself,” says Foddering.
A different angle is offered from players with a focus on software rather than hardware, says Graham Perkins, principal consultant at database vendor Sybase. “We’re not coming at the issue from the metrics and measurement side,” he says. “We’re not pretending we can fi x all data center concerns. But we are about managing the storage of data, from a software perspective. We can help reduce storage massively, and that is where you’re going to get cost savings, energy reduction and green benefi ts,” he says.
PERSPECTIVE – COLT TELECOM
COLT Telecom operates three data centers serving businesses in London – from City fi nancial services to government departments.
Guy Ruddock, COLT’s data center infrastructure services director, says the issue of energy is coming at the data center from all sides. “One end of it is the corporate governance and corporate social responsibility aspect,” he says. “We have to reduce the PUE of our data centers by 10% during this year and 2010. It may not sound much, but that’s huge. At the other end of the scale, we’re upgrading the cooling systems on our sites, taking out the least effi cient and replacing them with new.”
Ruddock says the most obvious way to reduce energy is simply to switch off what you don’t need. “Alternatively, you can shut down part of the server – say, the CPU – when it’s idle, or put it in a low power state.”
Ruddock generally welcomes the eff orts of supplier to the sector to develop energy solutions. “Everything the vendors are doing is great news for us. The green side of it, the money saved, and the customer getting charged less – all are signifi cant gains.”
“The next wave of technology will automate the whole cooling process. The nirvana after that is to fi nd some way of making use of all the wasted heat,” says Ruddock.
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