Network Computing India cover story “On a High Energy Curve”

Network Computing India has an article specifically on efficiency in the data center.

Cover Story

On a High Efficiency Curve

Increasing power, cooling and real estate costs are pushing CIOs to squeeze out more efficiency from their data centers

By Varun Aggarwal

Increasing awareness and computerization is propelling the growth of data centers in the country. Gartner predicts that the total data center capacity in India will reach 5.1 million square feet by 2012, growing at a CAGR of 31 percent. This is partly fueled by the fact that India is expected to be the data center hub for markets such as the Middle East and South East Asia. There are also instances of European customers opting to host their data centers in India.

Green data center is discussed.

Painting the Data Center Green
Green is the new mantra, and a host of organizations in India are exploring every possibility of saving on energy costs. Says Sanjeev Gupta, Service Product Line Leader, Site & Facilities Services, IBM India/South Asia, “As hardware purchases go up and organizations deploy high-density computing and network storage for mission-critical applications, there is an immediate impact on energy consumption for IT resources. This further impacts the need for implementing environments that ensure high performance levels and longevity of the server and storage environment, leading to the demand for ‘Green Data Centers’.”
In a tropical country like India, companies mainly rely on air conditioning units to keep servers at the right temperature. The more powerful the machine, the more cool air is required to keep the machine from overheating.

To meet these challenges, data centers have undergone changes in design to accommodate rapidly changing server technologies over the past 5 to 7 years. Servers that used about 150W power and 4 to 6 RUs of physical space are now replaced with servers using 3kVA in 8 RU space. This has necessitated radical approaches for supplying power and cooling requirements to such high-density racks.

More and more I am seeing green discussed as a benefit of cloud computing.

The impact of cloud computing
The latest buzzword in the industry today is cloud computing. This is essentially because it has the potential to completely revamp the way an organization works. According to IDC reports, cloud computing is reshaping the IT marketplace, creating new opportunities for suppliers and catalyzing changes in traditional IT offerings. This will have a tremendous impact on the way data centers are built today, and in the future.
Analysts believe that with the advent of cloud computing, efficiency levels in data centers will go up significantly.

Comments

[Business Energy Australia]

Great read and informative, thanks. You’re right we don’t hear very much at all about the Greens Policies. I had no idea they didn’t recieve big biz political donations – good on them. This will be something I’ll be keeping strongly in mind when I head to the ballot box.Very awesome of you to share these - thanks! :)