Are we going greener with new Data Centers?

by Priti Shetti Technical coordinator

Internet Data is multiplying and growing everyday which has given a push to the growth of data center Industry. Servers in these data centers produce immense amount of carbon emissions. On one hand, IT industry is rapidly growing adding more number of data centers. While on the other hand, everyone is concerned about global warming and environmental issues. Constant efforts are being made to minimize carbon footprint through different medium and methodologies.

According to a research report, data center industry consumes nearly 3% of world energy. In fact, many large data centers may gallop such huge amount of power which is enough to light up a city. In such scenario, management executives of data center companies have the onus of managing operations in much efficient and environment-friendly way.

Data center providers may choose to prune down the unused and idle servers or they may adopt energy-reducing measures like using renewable energy methods like:

· Solar Energy: Installing Solar panels will be one of the most energy-efficient way of meeting the power needs of IT industry.
· Wind Energy: Although, there are very few companies using wind turbines but future will definitely see data center industry adopting wind power for their energy needs.
· Geothermal Energy: Another source of renewable energy implemented by IT industry is the geothermal energy. It is naturally available in abundance in mid-west countries and Iceland.
· Recycling Heat: Many companies are recycling the heat which is emitted from the back of the racks to generate energy.

However, it is not feasible for all data center companies to adopt these methods because of several reasons like incompatible business models, huge costs, etc.

Nevertheless, there are other methods to gain energy efficiency that data center managers can implement for going green:

· Data centers can avoid highly polluting diesel generators for backup power supply. Instead, they can use bio-diesel powered generators which scores negligible on pollution meter.
· Secondly, the data center companies must find out and remove the obsolete machines which consume much more energy than usual. Generally the machines which were cost-efficient few years ago may no longer prove to be the same. This is why data center management should focus on regularly upgrading their machines and replacing the obsolete ones with the latest energy-efficient technologies.
· Green data center architecture for ventilation and cooling will also reduce the carbon footprint. Smart techniques like cooling fans on the water chillers, will help in minimizing the energy consumption.
· Not only this, data center managers can also make use of energy management software which can be greatly instrumental in conserving power consumption. These software are programmed to collect and aggregate the real-time temperature along with power consumption pattern of servers. Such real-time monitoring will enable the data center managers to strategics for power and cooling optimization in the facility.