Current and Future Needs of Power Services for Data Centers
Data centers seem to have a never end ending need for power. As more companies, regardless of size, create their own data centers and work in the so-called “cloud,” understanding the different power services for data centers has become increasingly important.
Power Services for Data Centers
According to a report released in 2007 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the needs of power services for data centers would nearly double from 2005 to 2010 to approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours of energy at an overall cost of $7.4 billion.
A recently-released New York Times study slightly contradicts those findings, however. Power services for data centers has not risen at such a rate, but industry professionals believe that it is due in large part to the economic slowdown, and is only temporary in nature.
One of the biggest issues related to power services for data centers is the need to access the Internet throughout the work day by employees for a variety of different reasons. From research, to online publishing, to e-commerce, to IT department support, the need for Internet access continues to rise. Many large companies, such as Apple and Google, now have large data farms supported by cloud computing in commercial data centers, further fueling power services for data centers’ needs. Additionally, those large companies, such as Google, work hard to keep their data centers, which are located in multiple physical locations, running as energy efficient as possible, thus saving important corporate dollars for investment elsewhere. The cost center of power services for data centers is one that receives close scrutiny at every company, regardless of its size.
Many also believe that the improvement of energy-efficient equipment may have helped control the needs for power services for data centers. Professionals in the power industry are playing an ever-larger role in equipment selection and how different power needs will support that equipment.
As the economy progresses in the upcoming years, and the world begins to slowly emerge from the economic slow down of the last few years, power requirements will again likely increase. The biggest piece of this puzzle is believed to be related to the numbers of employees within a company. As more people go back to work and unemployment drops, power needs will again increase and the EPA study may prove to be more in line with future power needs.
Ongoing analysis of the industry, power services for data centers, and electricity needs both in the U.S. and around the world will need to continue in order for the electrical industry to be able to provide proper levels of power. Additionally, those who design data center equipment will need to continue to find new ways for servers, phone systems, and the like to run in the most energy efficient manner. Companies who provide power services for data centers are an important cog in the wheel that will help bridge the gap between power providers, component manufacturers, electrical engineers, and those from the IT world that are charged with keeping their equipment online and available to their employees.
