The data center industry is a large and growing market. In fact, according to Market Research Future, the global data center market is expected to reach $517.17 billion by 2030. The demand for data centers is increasing as more companies need a place to store their digital assets.
However, most data centers are inefficient and waste energy because they use old technology and outdated equipment. These issues can be addressed with new technologies such as hyper-convergence.
Optimizing Inefficient Data Centers
The data center is a crucial component of any organization. It provides storage for your company's information and the power and cooling necessary to keep it running smoothly. Unfortunately, many businesses have inefficient data centers that waste both energy and operational costs.
The first step is to define what an inefficient data center looks like. Mature organizations have a good idea of the cost of their energy and IT assets. They know their energy costs as well as their operating expenses. They also understand how much they spend on IT assets, such as servers and switches.
Let's say we're talking about a company with 10,000 servers in its data center that consumes 1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each month at the cost of $1 million per month or $12 million per year.
And let's assume that the company is paying $0.05 per kilowatt-hour for this power, which means it needs about 2 megawatts of power each month (1 million kWh divided by 1 kilowatt-hour equals 1000 kW).
Given these assumptions, this company's energy bill amounts to roughly $2 billion over ten years — not an insignificant amount of money!
Here are some areas for optimizing an inefficient data center:
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure
Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) uses virtualization technology to enable multiple virtual machines to run on one server. This allows businesses to consolidate their servers into fewer locations, reducing costs while improving efficiency and performance.
The hyper-converged architecture was created to address the challenges of deploying and managing traditional server farms.
Traditional infrastructure requires separate hardware for each function — compute, storage and networking — creating silos that are difficult to scale and manage. HCI consolidates these functions into a single appliance that can be deployed quickly, easily managed, and scaled on demand.
HCI eliminates the need for costly servers, storage arrays, switches, and other components used in traditional infrastructure. It also eliminates many of the maintenance tasks associated with them. By simplifying IT operations, HCI reduces administrative overhead associated with managing multiple vendors and technologies.
Take advantage of free cooling.
If you use air-conditioning to cool your servers, you can save money by installing free air-cooled systems that take advantage of outside air. These systems use fans to draw in the fresh air and expel hot air back outside.
They eliminate the need for air conditioning, accounting for up to 70 percent of your total electrical bill. You may also be able to use free cooling during periods when your data center isn't heavily loaded or when it's closed down at night and on weekends.
Use efficient power supplies.
Power supplies are a major source of energy waste in data centers because many older ones consume more than 50 percent more power than newer models that meet Energy Star specifications.
Newer supplies generally sell at retail prices compared to older ones, so it's worth upgrading if you have older equipment in use today.
Use smart power supplies that automatically adjust voltage and current based on the load placed on them by individual devices (known as "load shedding").
These devices are available from most major server vendors and provide significant savings over older-style models that require manual adjustment each time you add or remove a device from the rack.
Upgrade your equipment with newer versions that use less energy.
Older servers tend to be inefficient because they were built before efficiency was a priority when designing new products. By upgrading your hardware, you can significantly reduce your carbon footprint without spending much money on new equipment immediately.
If you use a lot of electricity in one area of your business, consider upgrading to a more energy-efficient product. It may cost you more upfront but will pay off in the long run. You'll be able to use less electricity and save money on your monthly electric bill.
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Conclusion
Data centers are a significant source of energy consumption. In fact, by 2020, data centers are projected to account for 2 percent of global electricity consumption and 5 percent of CO2 emissions.
Inefficient data center operation can be the difference between making a profit and going out of business. While it is important to understand the long-term cost savings benefits of energy efficiency, short-term benefits can make your data center more efficient immediately.
The good news is that there's a lot you can do to reduce your data center's energy consumption by following those areas mentioned above.
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