As environmental issues permeate budget discussions, data center designs, corporate and government policy and social consciousness, the need to assess, design and implement appropriate power policies grows. Like a leaky faucet, this problem won't go away on its own. IT must expect this challenge to get more acute, and will require plans for more space and more electricity secured at reasonable rates. No surprises should be the modus-operandi here.
In the data center, server equipment is a notable culprit, generating up to 20X the heat output per square foot compared to disk drives, for example. Communications equipment is also problematic because the power density can be as high or higher than servers. Best practices are reminiscent of the days of ECL-based mainframes where environmentals were fundamental to data center design.
There are several approaches making a comeback. These include the use of cooling zones, where ultra-high density equipment is cabinet cooled and medium/low density equipment use row cooling and raised floor techniques. Placing high density equipment adjacent to low density equipment to essentially balance loads is another popular approach. Discussions about cooling methodologies (e.g. frames using chilled water and refrigerant cooling systems) are also more frequent as are heat displacement or heat removal techniques. The old adage of "don't just make hot air colder" rings true again in today's world.
On the user front, enforcing policies such as turning lights off or even smart lighting, turning off monitors and PC's after work hours and encouraging work-from-home days are all sensible approaches to making a "green computing" business sense.
Pompa Tenaga Surya | Jual Solar Cell
Action Item: IT organizations must get serious about environmentals, set goals, make them fundamental to design and procurement decisions, implement policies and plan accordingly for future needs. However users should be careful to understand the economics of green design to make sure initiatives are self-sustaining and/or justified within a broader corporate/social agenda and accordingly supported by Boards of Directors.
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