With mounting pressure to meet computing demand while lowering costs, interest in improving the energy efficiency of data centers – which can represent up to 40 percent of an enterprise's energy use – is on the rise.(1) HP recommends taking a holistic approach. Here's how.
Develop a Plan
Developing a comprehensive plan is essential. Solutions range from improving facility-wide power distribution and cooling efficiency to boosting server and storage performance. HP Data Center Transformation Services helps with facility design and management, HP Energy Efficiency Services provide solutions for power and cooling, and HP Thermal Logic technology optimizes power management from the server to the entire data center.
Be Smart About Cooling
You may be overcooling your data center just to prevent a few hot spots. HP's Thermal Zone Mapping reveals cooling regions in 3D, helping you fine-tune cooling settings and optimize the location of air conditioning units and density of server racks. HP also offers the HP Performance-Optimized Datacenter, which delivers additional data center space, combining impressive energy savings with support for intense power densities.
Reclaim Unused Capacity
Expanding a data center can cost up to $25 million per redundant megawatt of added electrical capacity. One solution is HP Insight Control Environment with Dynamic Power Capping for select HP ProLiant servers, software that sets an optimum threshold based on actual power usage. As a result, you can add servers without overloading power distribution systems, increasing effective capacity by up to 200% and delaying capital-intensive upgrades.
Increase Server Efficiency
New blade servers include energy-efficient processors and power supplies, small form-factor drives, active fan technology and low-power memory. For example, the HP ProLiant BL 460c G5 server cuts energy use by up to 25% over HP 's previous model, yielding up to $2,200 in energy savings per enclosure over three years.(2)
Tap Into the Cloud
To quickly scale to meet computing demand, consider a cloud computing solution. HP Adaptive Infrastructure as a Service allows enterprises to host applications in HP data centers. This can help reduce reliance on less energy-efficient legacy technology, and avoid the expense and environmental impact of purchasing, installing and powering new infrastructure.
Build, Consolidate or Retrofit
Whether you consolidate or build a new data center, virtually every choice can affect its environmental footprint. HP Critical Facilities Services can optimize your data center's infrastructure – including mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that meet LEED requirements – in alignment with scalable, energy-efficient data center solutions, driving down capital and operating costs over a typical data center by up to 25%. In 2008, HP completed consolidation of 85 HP internal IT data centers into just six locations in three U.S. cities.
(1)U .S. Department of Energy, 2007 and U.S. EPA Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Efficiency, Aug. 2, 2007.
(2)Source: HP internal testing; customer results will vary. Assumes rate of $0.08 per Kwh and cooling multiplier of 1.5.