|
How to cut the power bill and protect the environment without launching expensive new eco projects
Member Resources
Get the content you want:
Not a member?
|
Many IT departments are responding to tough economic conditions by moving so-called "green" initiatives to the back burner and focusing instead on immediate cost-cutting measures. And that's a shame, because an eco-efficient datacenter is a cost-efficient datacenter.
Eco-managing your datacenter doesn't have to mean implementing expensive, long-runway projects that pay off years from now. At Sun we've learned that there are many things you can do in the short term — often with very little expense and minimal staff involvement — that can have a positive impact on the bottom line and help protect the environment at the same time.
Energy, CO2, and cost: It's all related
Eco-managing your datacenter is mostly about using energy efficiently, because when you cut power consumption you simultaneously cut power costs and CO2 emissions.
Eco-managing your datacenter doesn't have to mean implementing
expensive, long-runway projects that pay off years from now.
That's right, there's a direct link between systems and CO2, though most end-users of compute services are unaware of the connection. Every time someone does a Google search or gets directions from Mapquest or "tweets" on Twitter.com, they effectively cause a small puff of CO2 to be released into the atmosphere. Every email, medical procedure, phone call, paycheck, online purchase, plane ticket, and electronic toll payment involves one or more datacenters. Every system uses energy, and the production of usable energy is CO2-intensive. Multiply the individual online interactions and transactions by billions, and you've got huge costs in terms of datacenter infrastructure, power, and environmental impact.
That's why the need for greater energy efficiency in the datacenter is intensifying quickly. Worldwide, the total power consumption of datacenters is expected to double between 2005 and 2010. Doubling server consumption would require additional capacity equal to more than 10 additional 1,000-megawatt power plants. And today, according to analyst firm IDC, roughly 50 cents is spent on energy for every dollar of computer hardware — and this is expected to increase by 54 percent to 71 cents over the next four years.
So there are plenty of reasons to cut datacenter power consumption; the question is how to go about it. The answer begins with a closer look at how power is actually consumed within the datacenter.
Where energy goes in datacenters
Servers and storage systems are not the only things that use energy in the datacenter. Cooling equipment often uses as much power as the systems themselves. Add to that the energy used to light the datacenter, the power distribution loss, and other factors, and you'll see that the majority of power coming into the datacenter is used for something other than IT equipment. The diagram below illustrates the point.
Each type of power usage is an opportunity to reduce total power consumption and CO2 emissions, so it's important to consider the entire range.
Starting at the bottom of the picture, the datacenter needs lighting because people work there. Next, a large electric feed from the utility enters the building and is switched. Since many datacenters are mission-critical and since power from the utility is not fully reliable, an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) is used as a backup. Finally, the power passes through power distribution units (PDUs), where it is distributed out to racks of equipment. These systems take the energy in, convert it to different voltages (losing some energy in the process), and power the components. The bulk of the power ends up converted to heat (with a little noise and mechanical vibration thrown in).
To get rid of all the heat generated by the systems, we need computer room air conditioners (CRACs) and industrial chillers. And we need humidifiers because the air conditioning process removes moisture from the air. So, when you add this all up, the IT equipment itself is only using only about one third of the energy! In other words, every watt of IT equipment requires two more watts just to process it.
Driving out inefficiency
Once you understand exactly where the energy is going within your datacenter, you can take action to use energy more efficiently on multiple fronts. Here are just a few examples of specific actions you might consider, based on Sun's experience operating and managing enterprise-scale datacenters worldwide.
- Select systems which are more inherently efficient. If you can save a few watts with the systems you deploy, that will often save more watts that would have been used for cooling or lost in delivery. Advances such as chip multi-threading (CMT), slower disk drives, and automated power-down technology are options for driving down the power consumption of datacenter systems.
- Use rating systems to calculate power consumption. Eco rating schemes such as Energy Star, 80 Plus, EPEAT, and Climate Savers Computing have long been available for desktops, and now Sun and other companies have devised increasingly accurate power calculators that can help you compute the expected power consumption of specific server configurations. These calculators provide some head-to-head comparisons between products from multiple vendors; and they can also help you size equipment such as PDUs and CRACs (which is important since over-sizing those systems can lead to very large inefficiencies).
- Consolidate wherever possible. System utilization rates of 10 to 15 percent are still commonplace in enterprise datacenters, and servers use most of their peak power whether they are 15 percent loaded or 80 percent loaded. Through virtualization and other techniques many of these systems can be consolidated — even the ones running the most mission-critical workloads. One project recently undertaken by Sun will consolidate 1,185 servers down to just 90 through virtualization, yielding a one-year ROI on utility reductions alone.
- Find more efficient power distribution. A study sponsored by Lawrence Berkeley Labs and Sun examines new ways to obtain more efficient high-voltage power distribution, and compares high-voltage AC and DC and the potential energy savings of each. The first order estimates are that high-voltage DC could save 5 to 7 percent over high-voltage AC, but the big savings is going to high voltage in general. Customers and vendors are also looking to minimize the number of power conversions that happen from the utility feed to the equipment.
- Get creative with cooling. Cooling is suddenly an area of major innovation, with customers and vendors exploring new options such as integrating cooling technology directly into server racks, even simply using variable-speed fans rather than single-speed fans, and making better use of cool external air (a.k.a. "fresh air cooling"). On the horizon is "free cooling," or a new generation of servers built to withstand much harsher conditions so that they don't require traditional cooling solutions. Sun is closer than ever with its latest systems. With server inlet temperature up to 87 degrees Fahrenheit accepted, the new generation of servers can use outside air in most of the world 24/7. Sun is also experimenting with liquid cooling and that could change the game as well.
- Go the extra mile for code efficiency. Less code — executed more efficiently — means fewer CPU cycles expended in processing workloads. For large compute farms a 10 percent improvement in efficiency can mean 10 percent less machines and 10 percent less energy. So encourage software engineers to minimize code and maximize execution efficiency wherever possible.
- Refresh your technology regularly. Compute technology continues to follow an exponential improvement curve. Combine that with new features such as power states, and just upgrading older equipment can often result in enough energy savings to fund the project.
Sun: Setting the example
Sun continues to investigate every conceivable opportunity to reduce the energy consumption of its systems and maximize efficiency in the datacenter. And we can point to our own experience to illustrate how significant the results of energy-saving efforts can be.
Sun recently built new energy-efficient datacenters in the UK, India, and the United States, compressing a total of 152 datacenters (202,000 square feet) into 14 new centers (76,000 square feet), resulting in a 60 percent reduction in overall power consumption — which cut utility bills by $860,000 USD in the first nine months. The new datacenters also reduced new construction requirements at existing facilities, a cost avoidance of $9 million USD. The new facilities will reduce carbon emissions by 3,227 metric tons annually, according to Dean Nelson, Sun's Director of Global Lab and Datacenter Design Services.
Sun is also leading the industry in designing eco-responsible products that cut negative environmental impacts without sacrificing performance, scalability, and reliability. This overarching focus applies not only to our products, but also to our services. We will continue to expand our range of services that deliver significant cost benefits to customers, while being sensitive to the environment — because it makes good business sense for everyone involved.
For example, Sun's Eco Innovation and Virtualization solutions are helping customers around the world lessen the impact of IT on the environment. With innovative technologies and services, and a proven philosophical commitment to greener IT, Sun offers customers a clear and actionable path to reducing energy costs and IT environmental impact.
Sun has also established specific product-related eco-efficiency goals that we are working to achieve over the next several years:
- Sun intends to introduce new products that offer 30 times more performance while using one-tenth the energy and generating half the heat compared to products offered in 2003.
- We will implement a thin-client IT architecture — where processing takes place on the network — in all Sun facilities, to significantly reduce both power and materials consumption.
We encourage you to learn more about Sun's efforts to reduce datacenter energy consumption and get your own initiatives underway. Greening the datacenter doesn't have to be expensive; it doesn't have to be time-consuming; it need not add significant burdens to your already overworked staff. You may find it's far simpler than you imagined to turn green to gold.
|
