Right-Sizing a Data Center with Power Services for Data Centers
Energy costs are a major issue facing modern power services for data centers and are only expected to get worse as the cost of electricity increases. Often in IT facilities energy is expended in numerous unconstructive ways. One such unwanted energy expenditure is the operation of various systems such as air conditioning and dehumidifiers which protect the IT equipment. It is well documented that up to 70 percent of a centers energy is normally used to cool and protect equipment, if an establishment is right-sized however, these costs can be substantially reduced.
Right Sizing Power Services for Data Centers
‘Right sizing’ is the process of correcting the physical infrastructure of an establishment. This technique basically involves the matching of the physical equipment and system to the workload. A current example of this is the ‘dynamic right-sizing’ approach. This approach involves the dynamic adaptation of the number of active servers to match the current workload (Lin et al., 2011). This approach works by dynamically dispatching referrals to servers, so that during periods of low activity servers that aren’t needed can remain in a power-saving mode and not have work routed to them.
Another process involved with right-sizing a data center is the elimination (or right-sizing) of any servers, memory, disc capacity or other unnecessary components, to ensure that what remains is matched to the desired application. In every data center there are fixed energy losses within the system regardless of the workload. According to The Green Grid (2007) these losses are relative to the general power rating of the system. It is therefore simply proposed that when the system is oversized the fixed loses become larger then they would be if the system was a perfect fit to its application.
Computer Technology
The non-stop development of computer technology is also aiding the process of right-sizing. The conception of the quad-core Central Processing Unit (CPU) has enabled power services for data centers companies to reduce the amount of hardware they need to fulfil their processing needs. With every new technological breakthrough the hardware is becoming more compact and more economical. A great example of a recent technological advancement is ‘virtualisation’.
Virtualisation is another tool that can be utilised when right-sizing a system. The idea behind this process is that a company can create a virtual, rather than a physical version of something. The practice of virtualisation can involve storage and memory, computing, networking and security and generally reduces the number of physical servers or system components needed in a center. This is owing to the fact that one physical server can offer numerous virtual servers or be fused into a collective that acts as a single server.
As well as saving on floor space, this decrease via visualisation, in the amount of hardware needed has the potential to reduce a company’s capital, or fixed costs, as well as reducing cooling costs, which as previously stated, account for a substantial share of a company’s energy bill. The Green Grid proposes that right-sizing has the ability to reduce a company’s electricity bill by up to 50 percent, which with the rising price of energy, would result in considerable savings in the future.
