A diagram taken from the Top 12 Ways to decrease the Energy Consumption of Your Data Center brochure
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — As the industry works towards improving data center energy efficiency, the US Environmental Protection Agency recently updated the energy efficiency requirements for a handful of Energy Star qualified products and equipment for data centers.
The green data center organization first established the Energy Star rating for data center products in June 2010. This latest update will improve new spec processes for UPS, data center storage, and Servers V2.0.
“All Energy Star labeled data center products will come with an associated Power and Performance Datasheet that lists product information and detailed test results,” said EPA. “Energy Star recognizes that data center products are highly complex systems that require more than just a label to understand their energy performance. All data center products will be tested according to their specific Energy Star test procedure, the results of which will be reported in a standardized format in the PPDS.”
Expected to be finalized and effective sometime this quarter, Energy Star Uninterruptible Power Supplies v1.0 specification will apply to almost all UPS products available on the market.
Companies that purchase an average Energy Star labeled data center UPS will save somewhere between 15 and 25 percent of its original cost during the lifetime of the product.
The Energy Star Data Center Storage v1.0 specification will be finalized and put into effect in mid-2012. The EPA said it will apply to a range of storage products in the SNIA Emerald taxonomy under the Online 2, 3, and 4 categories.
Energy Star will pinpoint the top 25 percent most efficient storage products available based on their idle state performance.
Once it has identified these products the organization will determine the active power measurement and label for a version 2.0 of the specification.
Finalized in mid-2012, the Energy Star Servers v2.0 specification will be effective in late 2012 or early 2013. The specification will span traditional rack and pedestal servers with one to four processor sockets and also covers blade servers.
Servers that currently hold the Energy Star seal under v1.1 are typically about 30 percent more energy efficient than standard servers, with one or two socket Energy Star servers saving anywhere $200 to $500 each over their lifetimes. This is expected to increase even more once v2.0 is finalized in 2012.
Energy Star has teamed up with Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation to develop an active power performance measurement tool called SERT, which will offer details about the energy performance of servers running common workloads.
Along with the new spec updates, the EPA has also compiled a brochure titled “Top 12 Ways to decrease the Energy Consumption of Your Data Center” that is free to download from its website to help organizations reduce the energy consumption of their data center.
About Justin Lee
Justin Lee has been a staff analyst with theWHIR since 2004. He writes about a range of web hosting and IT-related issues facing the industry on the WHIR website, as well the print version of the WHIR magazine. Follow him on Twitter @Justin_theWHIR.
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