Server Room Air Conditioner Reviews: Green With it!

In brainstorming our approach to developing a curriculum that will be acceptable and non-confrontational, I suggested writing an article that brings reason to the fore front. The term green IT is relatively new to the world of technology. Some may see it as a method of completely overhauling the IT infrastructure, others may see it is a dream dancing in the mind of a few idealists. Maybe we should have started this journey with the mind set of those who rode that fishing boat in 1971. They believed a few individuals could make a difference. Maybe there should have been more emphasis placed on education towards "greening the home".

How many of us are aware of the waste in energy in our homes? How many of us have paid utility bills without question, just a sigh of disgust and a dip into our bank accounts. I am impressed and motivated by the up front commitment to green by big business. It is a testimony of good faith when IBM, Cisco, Staples, HP, and even Starbucks begin jugging along the Green IT bus. History tells me that these companies expend a lot of time, research and money before showing their hands. My first serious look at energy conservation can be traced back to my pursuit of Planet 3's Certified Wireless Analysis Professional certification. Companies were beginning to adopt Power over Ethernet and one Mr. Devin Akin, CTO, Planet3 did a great job of explaining the savings on utility spending introduced by the use of POE. It was a revealing moment. I was awakened to the truth of alarming waste of electrical power. I immediately focused on my home, my bills, my ignorance and embraced my newly found knowledge. My inquisitive mind prodded me to investigate eco-friendliness, energy conservation and keeping some loose change in my account. I looked at my home's washing machine, dryer, refrigerators, television, computers, heating and cooling and lighting. It is alarming how these household appliances are overlooked. I paid very little attention to what we were paying for. In my study of green IT, it quickly dawned on me that the concept of every individual counts was right on the money. In appreciating the need for greening on the IT side, an understanding of greening the home should be the logical starting point.

Green With it!

A refrigerator (post-2001) being used 24 hrs/day, 30 days/month, costs around /year, roughly .04 per day.A 100-watt light bulb used 16 hrs/day, 31 days/month costs around .00 per month. My laptop that is on 24hrs. costs about .96/month. Although this was newly found knowledge, it quickly sensitized me to the vast amount of money being paid to keep humongous enterprise networks running. One IBM advertisement quoted figures of m to m per year in some cases. Data centers immediately came to mind. These mission critical, complex rooms are definitely money holes. They are the evil we cannot live without. There are laws that force enterprises to expand these monster rooms due to the need in the case of HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley to store data for specified time periods and emphasize secure data storage. Other companies can ill afford any downtime, so they are forced to design infrastucture with redundancy as the a major goal.

Confusion abound in the IT world. Most designs are in place and have been so for numerous years. Size of space, age of equipment and type of equipment have tantalized decision makers. One infrastructure design professional, in a discussion told me "nothing can be done about energy consumption at my job". He went on to tell me about the unbearable heat in his communications room, he lamented that newer more powerful servers burn more electricity. Says Mr. Magnus Herrlin, principal, ANCIS Inc, "thermal management is really the biggest issue at the moment, there's too much hot equipment in these spaces. It's leading to failures." The heat compounds the problem because mechanical and other electrical systems must be introduced to keep this equipment cool. Ironically these systems keep lights on.

I look at the Energy Star on my refrigerator and remind myself that some think that efficiency compromises reliability. Yes, it is great for the home, but for a NOC? Who wants to be responsible for a crash that results in a million dollar lost. The concerns of my peers are not unjustified. It is mind boggling to even think about introducing new innovations for conservation of energy. One friend told me that he believes green has no place in the IT environment. "It is a fad that will soon go away."

We both agreed to disagree. I look at conservation as a "no-brainer." The challenges are overwhelming, the goal is blurry, but the achievement of such is not impossible. We must at first identify the incremental steps that can be made to overcome this adversity. Virtualization is encouraging, providing sensible solutions to our power swallowing addiction. We are beginning to see more and more power efficient products. Companies should be rewarded for implementing these. Server consolidation should be prioritized in any training program. It is a fact that most servers are utilized below 60%. Therefore, the simple solution is advancing clustering technology. I remember my father saying, "there is a price to pay for advancement". There are companies with as many as 4,000 to 10,000 servers. Mr. John Humphreys, program director for IDC's enterprise platform group identified the growth in the number of servers at 24 million. This number was 6 million 10 years ago. A recent study by HP and the uptime institute suggested that for most of the world's data centers, 63% of the power is used for cooling.

The case for going green is undeniable, it is more than a fad. A look at the statistics, what we know and what has been proven true, warrants quick action. Activism comes from the word active. We need to actively address our legacy. What will be the state of our environment when we are through with it? Green IT has received a lot of attention. It is a call to action, not a total reclamation of our past, but simple steps, starting, like was stated in 1971, with individuals and the homes, the cars, the lakes, the rivers and the data centers. It is our moral duty to demand low carbon products, a structured plan for e-wastes, increased publicity about global warming, and governmental rewards for organizations that are actively moving towards eco-friendly operations.

The data center is the reservoir for end users. Lack of awareness on this end will defeat the ultimate goal. Users should be trained on proper computing practices and energy saving activities. The use of laptops, LCD monitors and thin clients, where applicable can reduce consumption costs. Use of power-saving techniques, turning off computers at nights and weekends, recycling old equipment and proper asset disposal should be enforced. Enterprises can implement small steps that will have a positive outcome. Energy efficient lighting and motion-activated lights can do a lot to reduce cooling needs. Coordinate air conditioner settings, it's easy to have one pitching heat while another cools.

Again I will stress the need to investigate virtualization. This technology presents environmental friendliness and increases the utilization and availability of servers. We should remember that older servers are much less energy efficient than newer ones. Choosing drive capacity is crucial. A 500GB drive is more efficient than a 250GB drive. Attention should be paid to UPS systems. Use newer systems which have less energy loss than legacy systems. Data storage is another area where small steps can be taken. One should evaluate their solution to ensure redundant data copies are not present.

Though the task at hand appears to be gigantic, it is attainable with small steps. Green IT, though controversial, tackles our approach to environmentally safe practices, earth friendly operations and sustainability.

Server Room Air Conditioner Reviews

Get Reliable Server Room Air Conditioner

Green With it!

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Archive