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Data Center Power Use Optimized with Data Center Efficiency Guide
By Susan J. Campbell TMCnet Contributing Editor
Energy efficiency is a business imperative in the data center business. The good news is that some of the industry’s leading data center operators and vendors have shared tips and strategies on best practices that can make it easy for data center operators to drive efficiency in their consumption of data center power.
Energy efficiency has now become a concern all the way up to the CIO, putting increased pressure on IT managers to design a data center that uses less power yet still performs at a higher capacity. A recently published Data Center Efficiency Guide allows data center operators and IT managers to gain real-world knowledge and helpful insight into the latest technologies that drive more efficient use of data center power that not only meets with upper level requirements, but also has a healthy impact on the bottom line.
One of the best things the data center manager can do is to complete a Energy Efficiency Guide Assessment to determine what they are doing well, what areas might need improvements and to identify areas of opportunity. Some tips shared in this assessment to minimize the use of data center power include turning off unused servers and plugging leaks.
The Energy Star program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shares specific tips to deliver greater efficiency in the data center, including the elimination of sub-floor obstructions; sealing areas where cables enter and exit plenums to improve cooling; eliminating vented tiles that are incorrectly located or sized; implementing blanking panels for proper airflow and cooling; and using structured cabling systems to eliminate disorderly and excess cables.
This Energy Efficiency Energy Guide Processors and Servers offers keen insight into processor-level energy gains and how they are improving the energy efficiency for servers as data center operators seek to use data center power more intelligently. Intel (News 
- Alert) has improved energy efficiency with a new 32-nanometer Core processor that features a new micro architecture.
AMD has introduced a Opteron 6100 processor family designed to address the rising demand for increased performance-per-dollar-per-watt for enterprise and public sector environments. ARM (News - Alert) Holdings is also promising data center efficiency with low-power chips that are moving from the mobile space to servers. The company still has work to do in this space, but has partnered with key innovators such as startup Calxeda, ZT Systems (News - Alert) and Nvidia.
The optimal use of data center power is possible, with the right strategy in place. Data center operators and IT managers stand to gain significant knowledge from the Energy Efficiency Guide, following key steps and minor adjustments to greatly improve energy consumption.
In other data center power news, Server Technology will be demonstrating its data center power products at the Data Center Dynamics show happening in New York today, March 10. Participants can stop by Server Technology’s (News - Alert) booth to learn more about the need for reliable, efficient and intelligent power distribution in the data center.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Carrie Schmelkin
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