Data centres are ugly ogres when it comes to energy consumption. According to a report published by Rackable Systems[1], the year 2007 witnessed about 180 billion KWH on power requirements and cooling and a whopping $29 billion has been spent to feed this energy requirement alone. EPA estimates that this kind of electricity consumption surpasses that of the entire U.S Transportation Manufacturing Sector.
That’s a lot of energy we use for our businesses!
Data Centres through-out the world are sitting ducks on time bombs. Over 1.2 % of total electricity consumption in the U.S alone – we haven’t yet touched on the data centres spread across the world-- is usurped by data centres alone. According to an article titled “Data Centre Infrastructure Management Tools Eliminate Inefficiencies” [2]on Computerworld.com, operational costs in the U.S have gone by up a full 100%. Further, about 35 to 45% of this energy is taken in by the server processors alone.
Increasing demand for more computing capacity; the possibility of energy costs toppling business profits; failure on the part of businesses to manage computing demand; mounting pressure from governments, legislative bodies, environmental groups and activists are just a few of the problems data centres, and hence growing businesses with an insatiable need for IT, would face. Here’s what justifies the pressing need for going Green:
Money rules the roost
If the core reason for existence of a business is to make profits, not much can be achieved if all the profits are sapped thanks to inflating energy bills. The fact that data centres punch business profits to a large extent should be enough for companies to sit up and take notice.
Saving Costs and Expenses: One of the most immediate and obvious reasons for going green is the apparent reduction in operating costs since there is an immediate enhancement in the utility, a cost-effective way of using resources,and managing toxic wastes by going “Carbon Neutral”.
Increased revenue: The fact that the costs are down boosts the profit part of the equation. Besides, companies that go green immediately gain patronage of consumers who are conscious of saving the environment. They peg a premium for products and services that are environment friendly, justifying the quality and brand companies boast about.
Profits from Carbon Trading Markets: Investing in renewable energy products or purchasing carbon credits which inevitably gain value can be sold off later for profits. New opportunities have cropped up which not only make companies “good business” but make them “good profitable, smart, environment friendly and efficient businesses”.
Enhanced Employee productivity: Going green immediately brings about a whole new way of doing things at work -- like going virtual, aiming to become paperless, reducing pollution by adopting best-practices and other initiatives that make it easy for employees to work and hence make them more productivity. A post [3] on the Cisco Blog Network by Jeff Squyres is a great place to a get a peek on how to scale up productivity using collaboration.
If you have been looking to relocate your servers, use a third-party data centre, build a data centre to meet the demands of your IT requirements, it helps if you look at the colour green more closely.
What do you think?
References:
[1] Think Eco-Logical: A New IT Mandate for Eco Consciousness and Sound Business Sense
[2] Data Centre Infrastructure Management Tools Eliminate Inefficiencies
[3] Cisco Blog Network by Jeff Squyres