Is this the worst IT network room ever?

Recently I had the fortune to work at a place where all of the computing equipment had been put into a small windowless room.  As I had temporary responsibility for it I quickly got to grips with the disaster in waiting I had inherited.

A picture paints a thousand words, so here are some of the room as it was.

Much of the equipment was 10+ years old and was running business critical applications.  The pictured server, with the additional ‘cooling features’ actually had the power unit fail and another server failed permanently when its mother board could not recover a power outage a few days later.

However, much of the excitement was quickly resolved with modern kit and procedures but it would be good to hear from others as I am sure this is not the worst IT room ever, but it must be quite close!

Why Governments will affect Energy Efficiency more than Gartner

In October 2010, at it’s conference in Orlando, Gartner Inc presented it’s vision for 2011 and beyond. Although there are no surprises about Cloud Computing being in the number one slot, the loss of absence Green IT or any label relating to energy efficiency has not gone unnoticed.

The cynical view is that there is insufficient funding for Gartner to place this topic in the top ten and new money is being targeted on emerging and wider interest technologies. However absence from the top ten may be recognition that a maturity in the energy efficiency and sustainability agenda is occurring and with many high profile data centre’s claiming success in lowering their PUE’s there may be some truth in this argument.

Undoubtedly some new technologies will become mainstream in 2011 and beyond, especially those involved in driving pervasive business models, such as mobile applications, media tablets and ubiquitous computing and with Google et al also predicting explosive growth in the mobile computing business over the next few years, the topics for conversation almost pick themselves.

However, it is not without merit that Cloud Computing has remained at the top of the pile. As a disruptive and evolving computing model it is the core technology that many of the other strategic technologies will operate on. It is also a highly lucrative arena in which many of the world’s biggest IT vendors and manufacturers, such as, but not limited to, IBM, EMC, HP, Dell, Oracle, Google, Amazon and many more are investing considerable capital to ensure success in.

The concept of only using the resources needed, thus optimising energy consumption is inherent in Cloud Computing but this is not the same as energy efficiency or energy reduction. However vendors are currently abound with solutions that can help with both of these. Furthermore the intervention of Governments around the world is beginning to gain corporate interest, making energy management a priority by default.

Although free air cooling and other strategies deliver highly valued cost savings, once these benefits have been accrued it is likely that governance and compliance to emerging standards will have an increasing influence in future energy efficiency initiatives.

Dimension 85 specialises in Data Centre Energy Efficiency Management.  and carbon reduction training in the data centre and wider ICT domain; You can contact Dimension 85 on the Dimension 85 website.

Is History Repeating Itself? (Revisited)

In Peter Judge’s piece 'should data centre operators look outside?' he speculates that a distrust of codes and rules exists, with ‘specific reasons to take a cool view on the EU code of conduct’.

This attitude is further endorsed by the Spectrum report, 'EU Code of Conduct failing to engage data centre industry', which concludes that IT considers other projects have higher priorities for resources.

The sentiments expressed are not unexpected and there are many recent examples of similar approaches by IT to issues that can have an important impact on costs and productivity.

For years businesses ignored important issues such as business continuity and even basic disaster recovery. Only when a formalised standard existed, and in some cases governance enshrined in law, did organisations take note of the available best practices.

Although many smart organisations will recognise the benefits of implementing best practice, the majority will wait to be coerced, by which time they will have lost many years of receiving key benefits, including reduced costs and carbon emissions. This approach seems to lack professionalism and is also self-defeating.

With the EU's Code of Conduct on Data Centres Energy Efficiency, history is repeating itself.

Governments and governing bodies are moving to adopt the principles of the Code of Conduct and place stronger importance on energy management. With the EU, USA, Japan and other nations aligning themselves with this issue, it is unlikely that the Code of Conduct is going to quietly disappear.

Not surprisingly, the current biggest take up of the Code of Conduct is by vendor organisations who recognise the potential marketing benefits that exist from its adoption. Vendor organisations are also developing new technologies that align with the Code of Conduct’s guiding principles; however the Code of Conduct’s real value is in the long term benefits it can deliver to organisations that must pay the energy bill through regular assessment.

Unfortunately there are still very few organisations that have progressed with the Code of Conduct, perhaps assuming that it’s voluntary status means that they do not need to give it any attention. As the demand for technology grows it is unrealistic to consider that any one vendor can solve your data centre energy issues or that a virtualisation project or migration to a cloud technology will keep your Carbon Reduction or Sustainability Officer satisfied.

In its current form, the Code of Conduct is a highly competent and authoritative set of best practices and although it still has some way to go, it is a credible start for any organisation looking to establish energy management as a discipline within the data centre.

Dimension 85 specialises in Data Centre Energy Efficiency Management.  and carbon reduction training in the data centre; You can contact Dimension 85 on the Dimension 85 website.

New impetus for Uninterruptible Power Supplies

Hot on the heels of the EU’s Code of Conduct on Energy Efficiency and Quality of AC Uninterruptible Power Systems (UPS), under the Energy Star programme the EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) is now developing its own standards.

Originally established in 2006, the Code of Conduct was established with the aim to minimise energy consumption (kWh) in Europe, by limiting the energy losses caused through UPS operation, therefore maximising the energy efficiency of UPS. It has been signed up to by most of the main suppliers in Europe including APC-MGE, EATON Corporation, Emerson Network Power, Chloride S.p.a, META SYSTEM S.p.A, RPS S.P.A. (Riello UPS) and SOCOMEC UPS.

The Code of Conduct is quite limited in it’s approach aiming at UPSs that deliver 3-phase uninterruptible power above 10kVA at 400/230 V. The Energy Star programme is far from being a ‘me-too’ response and is being developed collaboratively with the EU, who are in process of revising the Code of Conduct. The new programme is expected to cover a wider remit than the original EU scope and include UPS devices used in the data centre, office environments and for domestic use.

A clear intention of the new standard is to encourage data centres to run their UPSs at or close to 100 percent. This will have a considerable effect on operational energy efficiency but may require a reliance on the inherent overload capacity of the deployed UPS. IEC standards already include the need for overload testing, consequently, the standard is expected to include the requirement for clear indication and of overload capacity and reporting in each product’s power and performance datasheets.

With the EPA estimating a saving, through voluntary participation alone, of 710 mkWH/year just in the US, the energy efficiency benefits of this programme are considerable and although suffering some delays in the release schedule the EPA are considering that the new programme will be announced in mid 2011.

Dimension 85 specialises in Data Centre Energy Efficiency Management.  and carbon reduction training in the data centre; You can contact Dimension 85 on the Dimension 85 website.

Unsurprisingly the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme is now a tax

With the change in the Government’s approach to the revenue collected from the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (formerly known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment) scheme, it has now become more important to focus on reducing carbon emissions (CO2_E) from the data centre.

As the revenue is now perceived as a tax, the probability of the tax rate, currently set at £12 per tonne CO2, of increasing over time is high.

A tonne of CO2 is equates to about 500 Kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy. Assuming 500kWh costs about £40 to purchase, the new tax equates to a £12 surcharge; a tax rate of 30%!.

At best the rate will stay the same but as IT departments are planning to expand their use of technology, as predicted by Gartner (see Just implementing technology will not solve your energy problems!), over the coming years, reducing carbon emissions may not be an easy task.

Although technology is playing it’s part in helping to reduce the energy consumed per device, the increased demand for new equipment, and therefore devices, will increase energy demand and with it CO2 emissions.

Taken with the expected doubling of raw energy costs over the next decade, (also covered in Just implementing technology will not solve your energy problems!), organisations will be further squeezed on their energy budgets.; this is an inefficiency that can be avoided.

Effecting change in the data centre is not a short term activity and avoiding or limiting the impact of a growing energy budget on investment in IT should be considered before costs, and possibly the availability of energy, limit business capability.

IT and Data Centre professionals are not naturally skilled in energy and CO2_E reduction management, therefore the first order of business should be to acquire and retain the skill, preferably through training. Enhancing skills through training can be highly cost efficient and unlike hiring a consulting service, the skill does not leave the organisation once the task is completed.

For a more in-depth overview of the skills needed read Rise of the Green IT Manager

Dimension 85 specialises in Data Centre Energy Efficiency Management.  and carbon reduction training in the data centre; You can contact Dimension 85 on the Dimension 85 website.

Why monitoring PUE continuously is important

In "Just implementing technology will not solve your energy problems!" we covered some of the key influences affecting energy costs and power consumption. We concluded that monitoring was one of the foundation stones to be implemented as an important tool in addressing the energy issue.

Monitoring of data enables statistical and historical analysis of how energy is being consumed, which is a basic requirement when for helping in the management decision process.

The most widely accepted energy metric in the data centre is Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) which helps define the relationship between the total of power consumed by the data centre or IT ( Total Facility Power - TFP) and total amount of power used by the IT equipment only ( IT Equipment Power - ITEP).

Although its use is becoming more common place there are substantial problems with PUE, but it’s simplicity has encouraged adoption, but with its simplicity applying the metric requires considerable understanding of the environment it has been derived from. These issues are covered in detail on our website (PUE issues)

Fundamentally PUE is a point in time measurement of how TFP and ITEP are interacting and depict the energy efficiency at the specific point in time the measurement is taken. This means that depending on many different factors, including time, workload and even the weather, PUE may be different, for the data centre.

As PUE can vary in this way its value is enhanced by reviewing it continuously and assessing how it changes over time. This will establish a profile of how your data centre varies in energy efficiency over time and enables you to understand peaks and troughs in consumption and efficiency.

Currently IT infrastructure does not give up the information needed to drive effective PUE measurements easily and the solutions necessary for aggregating the energy related data can be costly. However, there are some good low cost tools available today that can lift an organisation out of the Excel spreadsheet era helping solve both the energy issues and carbon footprint reporting.

With the industry focussing more on PUE as its flagship measure and Gartner predicting that eighty percent of data centres (80%) will be reporting continuous PUE by 2015, prices may fall as tooling becomes commoditised and more vendors enter the market.

Dimension 85 specialises in Data Centre Energy Efficiency Management.  You can contact Dimension 85 on the Dimension 85 website.

Just implementing technology will not solve your energy problems!

Recent Gartner research has unveiled that energy costs are the fastest rising cost in the data centre and that this trend is unlikely to change any time soon.

Even though strategic initiatives like virtualisation, storage consolidation and data de-duplication etc have the ability to reduce the physical footprint, the post-recession increase in demand for new services will drive continued growth in the technology infrastructure.

Gartner estimates that the energy bill accounts for about twelve percent (12%) of the overall data centre budget and this growth in infrastructure will only compound the cost issue while fuelling further problems with the power and cooling resources.

This problem has the propensity of being compounded by the projected doubling of raw energy costs over the next few years (source Ofgem).

The market, (manufacturers and vendors) have responded with a wealth of technology enhancements to almost every aspect of IT and the data centre. Driven by several billion dollars worth of investment over the last few years, this improvement in technology will probably continue for many years to come.

However, this has presented an overwhelming amount of tactical solutions for ICT and data centre managers to consider. Although choice is welcome, once the low hanging fruit has been picked the question of how to progress to ensure maximum energy efficiency will create interesting challenges.

With so many areas of operation that consume energy to consider, such as the building, electrical facilities, cooling infrastructure, IT equipment and support areas, it is necessary to step back and look at the data centre as a complete energy system.

This holistic approach will enable a route map to be developed that provides both strategic direction for energy resources but also leverages tactical gain from short term energy efficiency projects.

Such an approach has two main requirements - assessment and monitoring.

Assessment of the energy infrastructure will identify the gap analysis and activities that can be developed into a long term action plan. Monitoring establishes a technical benchmark of energy consumption that can be used to consider the effect of planned changes, validate progress and feed reports for compliance requirements, such as the CRC.

These two processes begin to lay the foundation stones for developing a full energy management system, such as BS EN 16001, within ICT that enables proactive planning of the energy resources and is also aligned with your corporate energy initiatives.

Dimension 85 specialises in Data Centre Energy Efficiency Management. Contact Dimension 85 from our website.

CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme - Potential for Penalty Fines

30th September saw the last official day when organisations, both commercial and public sector must register in the UK Government’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC).

The Environment Agency have stated that not all the expected organisations have registered, there may be some unexpected fines being issued as all organisations that fail to comply with this requirement risk up to £45,000 in penalties.

The CRC is central to the UK’s strategy for improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The programme is designed to raise awareness especially at senior level to encourage changes in energy behaviour and infrastructure.

Organisations that use more than 6,000 MWh of electricity annually must register for Participant status. This requires them to provide detailed information on their energy use annually.

A second tier of registration is for organisations that have half-hourly electricity meters but whose consumption is less than the target annual MWh usage. Such organisations must register for the status of Information Declarer.

Based on the technical requirements it is unclear exactly how many organisations should be registering in each category, but with only about 3000 organisations registered as Participants, it is thought the shortfall could be as much as 2000 organisations.

The penalties are set out to be charge on a daily basis with an initial penalty of £5000 for unregistered Participants followed by £500 for each additional day. Organisations who fail to declare as Information Declarers will be penalised £500 for each meter that is not declared.

With so many organisations potentially failing to sign up for the CRC it may be several weeks before they are informed of their fine by the Environment Agency by which time they may have stacked up a significant, and unnecessary penalty charge.

It is recommended that action is taken by any organisation that meets the criteria stated above to verify that they have met their compliance requirements or to confirm their registration at the earliest possible time so as to avoid an increasing level of penalty fine.

Further information is available from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) at their website.

Dimension 85 specialises in Data Centre Energy Efficiency Management.  You can contact Dimension 85 on the Dimension 85 website.

Rise of the Green IT Manager

Carbon reduction, green and sustainability are rising to the top of social and government agendas resulting in new legislation and business pressure through the supply chain. This is resulting in the need for organisations to prepare for the ensuing compliance and also to secure any business benefits, such as increased efficiency, reduced cost, corporate social responsibility, enhanced reputation and competitiveness that may exist.

Many organisations have already taken on Carbon Tzar's to address the wider issues in their infastructure and the development of EN and ISO standards, such as EN 16001 and ISO 50001 are testament to how seriously these issues are being taken.

However, these standards do not provide any real guidance for the data centre, which as a specialised environment is often left to the data centre management to address any issues that may affect it.  Carbon management is such an issue and now data centre managers are being tasked to deal with the new agenda being forced on them by their corporate colleagues.

To meet this challenge a new set of skills is being considered necessary to add to the data centre manager's remit.

These new skills, or possibly a completely new role - the Green IT Mnanager, will need to unite many management disciplines.  In many organisations IT potentially accounts for a large percentage of a company’s CO2 emissions and where this occurs engagement and access to specialist IT services and infrastructure skills will be mandatory.

However, adding headcount is always a difficult, costly and time-consuming response.

For IT, the Green IT Manager has considerable technical and managerial commitments to undertake including:

   
• Calculating and monitoring CO2 emissions.
   
• Delivery of reports, internally and externally.
   
• Developing programmes of change to incorporate CO2 reduction commitments.
   
• Aligning CO2 emissions with IT service delivery.
   
• Integration with IT service management.
   
• Keeping aware of new technologies
   
• Ensuring compliance and plan for new legislation
   
• Maintain carbon awareness programmes

These new responsibilities place increased overhead on already lean budgets without offering immediate or short-term ROI benefits.

Opportunities for business exist in managing their CO2 emissions efficiently and in order to adhere to the current directives and exploit their potential, careful and targeted use of resources will be necessary.

Although the issues raised by the carbon agenda cannot be ignored embracing the issues, possibly through the Green IT Manager, can deliver real business benefits.

Dimension 85 specialises in Data Centre Energy Efficiency Management.  and carbon reduction training in the data centre; You can contact Dimension 85 on the Dimension 85 website.