Many people are familiar with theEnergy Star rating
systemused to indicate the energy efficiency
of monitors, PCs and consumer appliances.
But from this year the US rating system will extend to cover
datacentre equipment, including servers, and eventually storage and
networking products.
However, analysts and IT hardware suppliers are not convinced
the rating system will provide an adequate environmental guide for
IT directors, because of the complex and varied nature of
datacentre operations.
Energy Star is a ratings guide created by the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), in conjunction with the US Department of
Energy, and has been used as the eco-standard for many products for
several years.
Energy Star
qualification
In December 2006, the
EPA turned its attention to datacentres, after calculating that
US businesses could save up to $4bn annually in electricity costs
if they used more energy-efficient datacentre equipment.
As a result, the EPA developed a draft Energy Star server
qualification - the
Energy Star Program Requirements for Computer Servers
specification - which is due for release this year.
Meanwhile, hardware suppliers are preparing to release the first
servers that carry the new rating.
Among these is Hewlett-Packard. "In 2009, there will be an
Energy Star specification for a small number of business server
types," says Steven Gonzalez, ISS product marketing manager for HP
ProLiant power and power efficiency.
HP intends to offer a number of Energy Star versions of servers
rated under the upcoming server specification, says Gonzalez. But
he adds that with the specification still under development, it
would be "imprudent" to make promises about which specific models
and lines will be Energy Star rated.
Gonzalez says that over 1,000 models of HP office products are
currently Energy Star qualified. These include many PCs, which
comply with the recently released version
5.0 Energy Star Program Requirements for Computers
specification.
But he adds that the 5.0 specification does not apply to the
types of servers that HP sells in its ProLiant and Integrity
business server ranges, and rating servers requires a completely
different set of criteria.
Gonzalez candidly notes that Energy Star ratings will have
drawbacks in a datacentre context, and he urges IT directors to
examine other power-related benchmarks as well.
"With the complexities in the operations of IT servers there is
not an easy solution to create specifications, as every component
in a server can change the energy efficiency of that server, from
the power supply to the processor or the memory," he says.
Sun is another supplier participating in the EPA Energy Star
programme. Roy Reed, Sun European standards manager, says it is
difficult to predict which Sun servers will carry the Energy Star
branding, as the specification for servers is still in draft form
and subject to change.
However, Dell argues that
its server power supplies are already energy efficient, and that it
offers many desktop, workstation, laptop, display, TV and printer
models that meet the EPA requirements for Energy Star.
Tom Moriarty, EMEA regulatory and environmental compliance
manager, says that in May 2007, Dell became the first in the
industry to achieve 80 PLUS Gold
certification for a server power supply.
"The 80 PLUS certification enables our customers to compare and
contrast power supplies based on criteria from Energy Star and the
Climate Savers
Computing initiative.
Early
days
Networking and storage manufacturers are also preparing for
Energy Star, though they are wrestling with draft
specifications.
"As the Energy Star rating system evolves for storage, we
anticipate rating our products in the appropriate categories," says
Rona Newmark, senior vice-president for research and corporate
strategy at EMC.
But she added, "At this time, it is not possible to predict how
the categories will be structured, so it is not possible to
identify which specific products we will rate."
Networking suppliers also note that it is still early days for
Energy Star in the datacentre.
Matt Walmsley, EMEA solutions marketing manager at
3Com, says, "To date, the
Energy Star programme has yet to provide specifications directly
applicable to networking equipment, apart from those using external
power adapters."
Clive Longbottom, service director, business process analysis at
analyst firm Quocirca, says
the bottom line is that Energy Star ratings are unlikely to provide
a definitive guide to the green impact of datacentre equipment.
"The problem is that what is being mooted is a very simple
approach, along the lines of the ratings for consumer white goods
such as dishwashers," he says.
Longbottom adds that, once rated, today's state-of-the-art
servers will still be marked as energy compliant, despite being
superseded in future years by more efficient ones.
Longbottom argues that India has a much better approach and is
looking at providing equipment with a "dynamic" star rating system,
which allows it to be automatically downgraded by one star within a
specified period of time.
"A datacentre will then be given an overall score based on the
star rating of all the items within the datacentre, providing the
impetus to organisations to upgrade not only single items of kit,
but their overall approach in order to get a better rating," he
says.
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