The US Environment Protection Agency is developing
a standard for its Energy Star programme to provide IT directors
with a green rating for datacentre technology.
In an exclusive interview with Computer Weekly, available as a
podcast, Andrew Fanara, who works in the product specifications
development team at the US Environmental Protection Agency, said
the goal of the programme was to make it easy for IT directors to
identify the most efficient datacentre servers and components.
He said he expected Energy Star-rated equipment to be more
expensive than non-rated products, but predicted that in the long
run prices would fall as businesses made an Energy Star rating part
of their procurement requirements.
"There is a crisis because the cost of providing energy is
rising and some datacentre hotspots risk being unable to get enough
power to run the datacentres," said Fanara.
He said the first phase of Energy Star's programme would focus
purely on efficiency "to reduce demand for electricity and create
more supply", since for every watt of electricity used to power
servers datacentres were typically consuming two to three watts on
cooling.
Fanara said CIOs should look at inefficient use of power and
cooling in all datacentre components, from routers to servers and
in other network equipment - across the whole power delivery
infrastructure.
"Datacentre operators really need a plan to do the tasks that
are most cost-effective to deliver savings to an enterprise," he
added.
"Worldwide, the cost of electricity is going up, and while some
businesses may have the option to relocate their datacentres to
areas where there is a cheap and abundant electricity supply, many
more will not have that option.
"Datacentres represent a great opportunity for companies to
cost-effectively reduce energy consumption, particularly during
peak times. At the same time, their efforts will contribute towards
the global challenge of tackling climate change."
Related article:
Datacentre efficiencies
'need review'
Related article:
How to make money by
going green
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Listen to the podcast
Far from being green, IT equipment such as desktop PCs and
servers running in datacentres, are contributing to global warming.
They are putting massive demands on the electricity grid.
Worldwide, the cost of electricity is going up, and while some
businesses may have the option to relocate their datacentres to
areas where there is a cheap and abundant electricity supply, many
more will not have that option. Listen to Cliff Saran's interview
with Andrew Fanara from the US Environmental Protection Agency on
the Energy Star programme for datacentre energy efficiency.
Listen to: Andrew Fanara Part 1
Listen to: Andrew Fanara Part 2
If that doesn’t work go to:
http://computerweekly.podomatic.com