New green data centers are assisting CIOs in saving electricity consumption and reducing carbonic emissions.    

FREMONT, CA: Explosion of digital technologies in this era is resulting in increased generation of data that must be stored and recorded for future access. This has severe implications on both the costs of operating a data center and the environment. As the consumer demands for innovative solutions continue to evolve, enterprises are in constant demand to increase their storage and data retention needs. Today, there are millions of servers running across the globe, being upgraded and managed, but not always being used. These unused servers cost billions every year and waste precious energy. The green data centers can recognize these wastes and work to repair them. 

Today, even small data centers consume large amounts of energy. Operating the server, fans, consoles, monitors, cooling systems, and many others, require a large amount of energy. Modern CIOs are more conscious of their firms' carbon footprints and are contemplating what green data centers can offer.  Several factors fuel data center cost savings and reduced environmental impact, including design, materials, and alternative energy technologies. CIOs can successfully build and implement green data center initiatives that amplify efficiency and return on investment by following these steps. 

• Conducting Energy Audits

CIOs are recommended to start green data center initiatives with a baseline energy auditing. This method provides both a real-time assessment of usage and efficiency and a benchmark for future evaluations to guide long term strategies. Data centers are comprised of several interconnected systems, and it is critical to drill down individual systems to identify inefficiencies within the infrastructure. The energy audit assesses the impact of these influences on usage and frames tangible remediation.

• Attending Environmental Attributes

Enterprises save by building data centers using locally sourced renewable sources to power servers and building in naturally cold locations to take advantage of free cooling. Concerning energy efficiency, it is estimated that this will collectively save a considerable amount of energy. There are other factors CIOs should consider to support less energy usage and reduced carbon footprint, such as small-size building, low emission materials, and alternative energy sources for power and cooling. Upgrading air compressors, paper shredding, shutting down dormant servers, and changing to LED lightening can positively impact the green initiatives.

•Reducing the Use of Power

Datacenter power usage is the primary variable of cost, and are projected to increase more in the coming years. To bring down the usage of power, it is vital to lower the amount of energy required by the information technology infrastructure and workflow models. Servers consume the majority of payload power in data centers. To reduce this power drain, CIOs should focus on consolidating and virtualizing workloads, eliding powered servers that are dormant, and replacing old ones with new models.

• Optimizing Data Center Cooling

Building data centers in naturally cold environments contributes significantly to more efficient data center cooling. CIOs can amplify this effect by installing external air economizers that draw from the natural environment instead of a power source for cooling. Optimizing air conditioning through the alternative cooling source and continuously adjusting the speed to match real-time requirements can make a significant impact on energy efficiency.

• Designing Modular Data Centers

Prefabricated data centers fuels businesses by delivering modular packages for CIOs. These pre-engineered solutions aim specific parameters, including deployment speed, performance, reliability, and cost reduction. Designing modular approach increases the predictability and lessens the organizational disruption of the build process. They also provide enterprises with increased flexibility while saving the resources and space required to build an entirely new data center.

• Working with Vendors

Many data centers employ designers and energy efficiency experts to assist in redesigning data centers for energy efficiency. The same experts can assist in redesigning data centers for energy efficiency and facilities design for energy savings. CIOs can avail analytics software vendors who can redesign the data center for energy efficiency. It also enables them to establish a higher return on investment and measure the time taken to recoup the investment.

Designing a green data center starts with identifying and remediating inefficiencies in the infrastructure. Smart choices around environment-friendly materials and location attributes can make a significant impact over time. With greener practices, CIOs can make substantial progress on both decreasing environmental impact and lowering power costs.

See Also: Enterprise Technology Review