(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — The growing footprint of data centers is greatly contributing to the world’s overall carbon emissions, with the IT industry accounting for 2 percent of carbon emissions worldwide. This has put pressure on IT organizations to focus on implementing solutions that will reduce energy costs and carbon emissions associated with their data centers.
Pike Research (www.pikeresearch.com) addressed this issue in its recent report titled “Green Data Centers,” which showed that energy efficiency has become a major emphasis among IT firms.
The report projects that these investments in upgrading data centers will jump from $7.5 billion this year to $41.4 billion in 2015. As a result of these upgrades, green data centers will comprise of 28 percent of the total market by 2015.
In an email interview with the WHIR, Pike Research analyst Eric Woods, discussed the results of the Green Data Centers report and what it means for the future of ecologically-friendly data centers.
WHIR: Why is the industry going through such a drastic growth in green data center investment?
Eric Woods: Above all, the growth in green data center investment is being driven by dual concerns over environmental impact and rising energy costs. In the past, energy consumption was not seen a priority issue in the data center and the split of responsibilities between IT and facilities teams within the enterprise made accountability easy to avoid, but this is changing. The carbon footprint and the energy cost of the data center are more visible than ever before. There are other drivers as well. For example, the increasing demand for IT capacity is putting a strain on existing data center infrastructures but in the current economic climate many businesses do not want the capital expenses of building a new data center. Making an existing facility more energy efficient can expand its life span and increase its workload capacity. And though the green data center has evolved in response to concern over energy use, it is closely connected to the broader transformation that data centers are undergoing. This transformation encompasses technical innovation; operational improvement; new design principles; changes to the relationship between IT and business; and changes in the data center supply chain.
WHIR: What best practices and technologies are helping operators to boost their data center’s energy efficiency?
EW: For existing data centers there are a few basic steps that should be the starting point. The first step is to assess your current energy use. A relatively simple measure like PUE (power usage effectiveness) provides a benchmark against which you can measure future improvements. The next step is to check that your existing cooling infrastructure is working as efficiently as possible. Are there any unnecessary obstructions to air flow? Could you be running the data center at a slightly higher temperature? Are you using hot or cold aisle containment to separate hot and cold air flows? You should also look at upgrading inefficient chillers, UPS systems and power distribution units with more modern, energy efficient components. Beyond these basic and relatively inexpensive steps, then you can look at more ambitious improvement such as the implementation of “free cooling” systems that use air-side or water-side economizers. On the IT side, the basic step is to make sure that you include energy efficiency calculations when refreshing IT servers and other equipment. The biggest gain on the server side though will come from virtualization, which can lead to a 20:1 consolidation of the server estate, saving on power and space. Of course it’s much simpler if you are designing a new data center where you can take advantage of the latest energy efficient systems for power and cooling as well has the new generation of energy-efficient IT equipment.
WHIR: What are the market, environmental and regulatory concerns that are helping to define the green data center market?
EW: First of all, the demand for IT services continues to grow throughout the world, even following a major economic downturn. The digitalization of much of the world’s information and the opportunities afforded by global connectivity have been transformative, providing Internet-based services, e-government, digital products, communication services, collaboration technologies and new business applications and services. In addition, we are looking to IT to underpin new initiatives for energy reduction in transport, smart grids, clean buildings and commerce. Another driver is the transformation of the data center is technology innovation. The continuing operation of Moore’s Law means that today’s generation of processors is delivering two to three times the workload of the previous generation. The continued increase in server power has made possible the move to virtualization and consolidation of servers in the data center. At the same time, these developments are pushing up the power and heating densities within the data center.
On the regulatory side, many government and inter-governmental organizations have been promoting green IT as part of a wider set of climate change and environment initiatives. Some of these have included specific measures aimed at improving data center efficiency. The EPA, for example, launched its ENERGY STAR rating for data centers in June 2010. The program encourages data centers of all sizes across the United States to measure their energy use, and also provides a labeling scheme for data centers that are in the top 25 percent of energy-efficient sites. The most high-profile program outside the United States is the European Union’s Code of Conduct on Data Center Energy Efficiency, which provides an approval scheme and guidance on best practice.
Carbon capping legislation that imposes specific limits on the carbon emissions of organizations will also increase the pressure on data centers. Global data center operators are already building data centers from the standpoint that they will need to comply with this type of the regulatory environment, in one form or another, within the next decade.
Environmental concerns are growing for data center operators, and are likely to become much more stringent over coming years under corporate, consumer and regulatory pressure. However, the main driver for the green data center today is financial. Some companies are pushing ahead on energy efficiency under a strong corporate social responsibility drive, but still require a clear return on investment to justify any significant capital expenditure. Fortunately, the financial arguments for investing in the green data center are strong. Specific examples garnered in our research include data center managers that have reduced annual electricity bills by five- and six-figure sums simply through an incremental replacement of inefficient cooling units. Less expensive changes such as sealing spaces in and between racks to ensure maximum air flow can show an almost instant return on investment.
WHIR: How large is the potential market for green data center technologies?
EW: Pike Research’s analysis shows that the green data center market will be worth just under $10 billion worldwide in 2010 exceed $40 billion worldwide by 2015. That’s a compound annual growth rate for the green data center market of just under 33 percent between 2009 and 2015. By 2015, green data center technologies will represent more than one-quarter of the data center market.
WHIR: How do the trends in data center energy efficiency differ among North American, European, and Asian markets?
EW: We expect initial market growth to be concentrated in North America and Europe. The US market is leading at the moment, driven by the financial benefits of energy efficiency and the fact that its economy has recovered more quickly than those within the EU. We expect European growth to increase from 2011 spurred by greater economic confidence and strong consumer and political pressures on climate change. In Asia, adoption currently lags that of North America and Europe, but will pick up rapidly over the next few years, reflecting the opportunity to benefit from lessons learned in North America and in Europe, and the increasing pressure to meet carbon emissions targets as well as issues of energy capacity.
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