Interest in the efficiency of data centers is on the rise

This is due to many different factors, but it has a lot to do with the increasing popularity of cloud computing, which fully depends on their existence. The data centers used by cloud computing providers aren’t like the ones you’re used to. They aren’t just a few servers sitting in an air conditioned room in the back of the office. They are giant server farms that can consume extremely large amounts of energy and other resources if not powered in an efficient manner.

In fact, they can consume 10 to 30 times the energy of an average office building. They can also produce a whole lot of E-waste if end-of-life hardware is not recycled or reused. This can be scary to think about considering how much we hear about diminishing resources, rising energy costs, and the harmful effects of E-waste.

On the positive side, awareness is growing and the demand for more efficient data centers is too. Providers have and are proving that being able to boast operating efficiently creates quite the competitive advantage. The ability to claim your company is “green” has become a strong selling point. Providers that are investing in becoming more efficient are increasingly able to reduce costs and, in turn, offer lower prices on a wider array of offerings.

At this particular point in time (I don’t like saying “in this economy”), most companies’ priorities are as follows:

1. Reduce spending.
2. Reduce spending.
3. Maintain image/integrity (while reducing spending).

Smart Support Companies are Offering Green

There aren’t many better ways to turn a company with priorities like these into a customer than to offer them a solution that simultaneously enables them to save money and do what’s right for the environment.

This is a big reason why providers are starting to make progress towards consolidating resources, conserving energy, and reducing pollution. Take a look at Google’s latest “green” data centers, for example. The average energy overhead of all of Google’s datacenters combined is only 19%. The industry average is a whopping 96%! How is Google able to accomplish such efficiency? There are many different ways, but here are a few of the ways they’re doing it:

1. Using 100% recycled water.
2. “Free cooling” utilizing cooling towers rather than chillers.
3. Recycling or reusing 100% of end-of-life hardware.

Additional methods for increasing efficiency are in the works as well. Possibilities being explored include implementing “utility-scale” solar power, which would require the use of solar power plants that can provide massive amounts of energy at prices that can compete with fossil fuels. Also, geothermal cooling is a very interesting new concept. The bigger providers – like Google and IBM – are diving in deeper because they can afford the up front costs associated with constructing fully “green” data centers. In the long run, these providers will be the ones achieving the real cost savings, which will then be passed down to the consumer.

Data centers are becoming more efficient by the day. Experts are spending more and more time coming up with new concepts and solutions for inefficiencies and proper disposal of E-waste and are seeing real results. As long as the awareness and demand is there, focus on research and development will continue to increase and we will all be rewarded with lower cost solutions and a cleaner planet. Sounds good to me!

This article was contributed by Highroad IT. They are a managed services provider in Newport Beach that specializes in “Green IT”.