For the most part, being green in the data center is about increasing power efficiency and thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. From a purely environmental and ecological perspective, higher levels of green could be achieved by examining the entire life cycle of technology systems— from production and supply chain all the way to the disposal of toxic components. But for now let’s stick with the power efficiency theme.
Here are some Green Grid developed metrics for evaluating data center facility efficiency:
From a planning perspective, I’ve personally found PUE to be a more useful tool than DCiE because it gives you a simple multiplier you can use to estimate your increasing facility requirements as you add new servers, storage and the like. While PUEs generally fall into the 1.7 (more efficient) to 3.0 range (less efficient), I have seen PUEs approach 1.3 when a holistic, facility-wide approach is taken regarding power efficiency.
Keep in mind, the PUE and DCiE numbers tell you how efficiently your data center is operating from a power distribution and cooling perspective. They do not tell you how efficiently your IT group is delivering useful value per kW of total power consumed.
This is exactly what Green Grid is trying to do next: define ways to measure overall Data Center Productivity (DCP). That is, Green Grid is attempting to help you quantify how well the energy you’re using is being applied to useful work. Since this is very complicated and will vary by application and industry, the Grid is hoping to define useful “proxies” or indicators that can provide some normalized measurement and useful insight.
Here are some of the types of measurement proxies being considered by the Green Grid (read the Green Grid Proxy White Paper [3] for more details):
My purpose here is not to disparage the efforts of the Green Grid regarding DCP. I do believe, however, that the DCP models could use more input from the user community. That’s right: I mean you. Please post any comments here or, if you prefer, you can get involved with the Green Grid directly and provide feedback to the DCP survey [4].
At the same time, I encourage you to not lose sight that optimizing your PUE offers low hanging fruit in achieving improved efficiency, reducing carbon emissions and saving money. Modern facility technologies such as ultrasonic humidification, high efficiency harmonic mitigating transformers and variable frequency drives (VFDs) can be effective in dropping your PUE into the more efficient 1.3-1.5 range.
In fact, let’s compare IT server and storage upgrades with facility infrastructure improvements (PUE):
There’s no doubt that replacing older,inefficient computers and storage systems with more energy efficient models is a good idea. Clearly, ENERGY STAR servers [5] and storage will help through natural technology refresh cycles. Virtualization will reduce the number of servers you need, allowing your systems to run at higher operational efficiency.
However, if you want to make an immediate impact that will continue to pay dividends as you refresh your servers, storage and network systems over time, improve your PUE first.
As always, thank you for sending comments, tips and topic suggestions to me at CIOblog@TransitionalData.com [6].
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Michael Bullock is the founder and CEO of Transitional Data Services (TDS), a consulting firm helping clients implement energy saving green data center [7] solutions, data center relocations [8], web based enterprise applications [9] and 24/7 technical operations [10].
Links:
[1] http://www.transitionaldata.com/insights/EPA_Datacenter_Report_Congress_Final.pdf
[2] http://www.thegreengrid.org
[3] http://www.thegreengrid.org/Global/Content/white-papers/Proxy-Proposals-for-Measuring-Data-Center-Efficiency
[4] http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=PH3iyOfA0cDxE9oZFjTnMw_3d_3d
[5] http://advice.cio.com/michael_bullock/energy_star_servers_coming_soon
[6] mailto:cioblog@transitionaldata.com
[7] http://www.transitionaldata.com/services/data_center_optimize.php
[8] http://www.transitionaldata.com/services/data_center_relocate.php
[9] http://www.transitionaldata.com/services/business_solutions.php
[10] http://www.transitionaldata.com/services/tech_operations.php