(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — IT research firm Gartner (www.gartnerresearch.com) issued a new report on Tuesday that reveals that the data center problems such as power, cooling and spaces costs will continue to worsen in 2010, calling on all data center managers to proactively attend to these issues.
The report makes a few recommendations to businesses in order to reduce data center costs, including monitoring and measuring power usage, replacing old or underused servers and consolidating data centers.
Next week, Gartner will host its Data Center Conference in Las Vegas, held at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace from December 1 through 4.
“Energy costs are fastest-rising cost element in the data center portfolio, and yet data center managers are still not paying sufficient attention to the process of measuring, monitoring and modeling energy use in data centers,” says Rakesh Kumar, Gartner analyst. “They need to realize that removing a single x86 server from a data center will result in savings of more than $400 a year in energy costs alone.”
The report suggests a few ways that data center owners can cut costs in their IT facilities, including assessing their hardware to see which systems are old or are no longer of use. Businesses have reported that this kind of hardware rationalization has helped them reduce 5 to 20 percent of their overall server count, says Gartner.
Gartner also recommends that companies should consolidate the number of data centers, and use different tools and techniques that help reduce power costs.
These include raising the temperature in the data center to lower the amount of cooling needed, using outside air instead of air conditioning, and using the many tools and technologies that server makers offer to lower energy used by the systems.
The report also said that data center managers should try to keep staffing costs under control and postpone buying newer systems if the existing systems are operating efficiently.
Businesses should also reassess their overall data center strategy. This includes relocating a data center to a placer with lower costs in the event that it is located in a region with higher labor or energy costs.
Data center owners should also be aware how long a refurbished data center will last, as Gartner analysts say that refurbished facilties should provide at least five years of physical, electrical and networking capacity to make any renovations worthwhile.
Gartner says administrators should also iron out any technical problems of bringing new technologies and components into their data centers and ensure that they can continue operating the data center during such renovation projects.
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