 "Efforts To Make DCs More Eco-Efficient Pick Up: Report")
451 Research has published ‘Highly Energy-Efficient Datacenters in Practice,’ a wide-reaching report that examines how datacentres are capitalising on developments in design, energy management, cooling, and new deployment approaches to improve their energy efficiency. The report from 451 Research’s Datacentre Technologies and Eco-Efficient IT practice includes case studies on 24 of the world’s most highly energy-efficient datacentres – some large and well-known, others smaller and more obscure.
Highlights from the report include:
Large Internet-related companies, such as eBay, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo, represent a new breed of operator taking an integrated approach to achieve significant energy efficiency to cost-effectively meet growing datacentre demand.
The proliferation of Internet and cloud computing services will continue to place increased demand and public focus on the datacentre operations of suppliers. These datacentres will continue to be engines of innovation in efficiencies.
Datacentre eco-efficient IT has moved on from token or one-off efforts to limit energy use to a war on excess resource usage.
Power and cooling remain the top targets for efficiency. While free cooling is proliferating, operators are being far more cautious with direct current (DC) power distribution.
Though prefabricated modular datacentres are not inherently energy-efficient, their phased deployment can help operators avoid infrastructure overcapacity.
The datacentre owners and operators achieving high energy efficiency demonstrate what can be done through innovation, focus, and investment. “Tightly integrating the various moving parts of a datacentre project, such as the parallel design of cooling and IT systems, can lead to results beyond what is possible with a piecemeal approach,” said the report’s lead author Rhonda Ascierto, Senior Analyst in 451 Research’s Datacentre Technologies and Eco-Efficient IT practices. “In very efficient datacentres, we are also seeing an increased emphasis on collaboration between datacentre facilities and IT operations within an organisation, and between organisations and their consultants and vendors.”