FACILITIES DCIM
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http://dcsuk.info/n/tfoa
A business case for green: DCIM Many enterprises are still oblivious to the real environmental cost
of their data centre estate. It is therefore crucial to ensure that the data centre is running smoothly at all times, with power, space and cooling allocated correctly in order to maintain business continuity and minimise inefficiency. By Robert Neave, co-founder and VP of sustainable IT initiatives, nlyte Software.
I
n many cases, however, this is easier said than done and a Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solution is the only way to effectively bring all assets under central control. Optimising a DCIM strategy will ensure funds are not wasted, environmental targets are met and reputation is not compromised by energy intensive, volatile data centre strategies that are spiralling out of control.
Data centre dark ages
The rapid increase in corporate data stems from the rise of Web 2.0, video and email and is, to an extent, part and parcel of the evolving digital climate. That being said, unnecessary inefficiencies have slipped under the radar because energy costs have been relatively low in comparison to hefty IT budgets, while outdated design practices mean that only a fraction of the grid power consumed actually reaches the IT systems. The future is looking ‘greener’ however as budgets have tightened and there is a renewed emphasis on Corporate Social Responsibility.
The main culprit of unnecessary energy waste in the data centre is over-provisioning. In order to guarantee data centre operations and prevent the entire IT infrastructure grinding to a halt, assets often run at low utilisation rates and include purpose-designed duplication and redundancy to ensure high availability. In addition, given the pace of data centre growth, many organisations have over-allocated for the future, further exasperating the efficiency issue. To put this into context, some data centres utilise just five to ten percent
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www.dcsuk.info I February 2012 Legislative greening
Being green is now also a compliance issue. As the EU sets targets to reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent between 1990 and 2020, international pressure is mounting in the form of legislation, regulation and voluntary codes of conduct. Initiatives such as the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centres Energy Efficiency and the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy
of their computing capacity1
and according to IDC, approximately 40
percent of today’s data centre costs are power-related – a figure that is due to exceed 50 percent by 20152
. Essentially, while high levels
of redundancy may guarantee performance, cut risk and underpin reliability, they also bring additional energy costs – a situation which is simply unfeasible given the hikes in energy prices and fragile economic climate.
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