POWER AND COOLING SURVEY 2007

In the second annual survey of power and cooling for data centres, research was extended to include interviewees in Europe, North America and Asia.

The report warns that as overall power consumption is rising, as more space is taken up with IT equipment, power costs will become the single most important factor in Data Centre operating costs if nothing is done. Power demand may not stablise until the medium term.

At the same time, the report noted that since 2006, the incidence of carbon concerns had increased. The report notes that a number of smaller providers have entered the market with a “carbon-neutral” Data Centre offer as a form of differentiation. Data Centre companies who are making the carbon neutral factor a central part of their sales proposition include Carrier Neutral Data Centre provider Evoswitch in the Netherlands and managed service provider Centrinet' s Smart Bunker complex in the UK.

However the main concern expressed across all companies surveyed is the soaring cost of energy and the reduction of energy usage and adoption of green policies is now a top priority in the IT environment. Yet what was once considered a solution, blade servers are typically running at below full capacity with no more than 20 blades being put into a rack due to the limitations of cooling in the Data Centre.

The survey documents and identifies a range of issues providing valuable input in understanding the current status of data centres in terms of strategies for power and cooling : the most common actions used to create a greener Data Centre facility, regulatory and legal requirements driving power and cooling including in particular the rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the data centre ecosystem and its relationship with power and cooling, external factors impacting data centres, and provides a range of best of breed data centre case studies.

Methodically assessing an array of current and new power and cooling technologies, the survey captures the most important developments in progress providing useful summaries to support the formulation of management strategies. For the moment however, the survey concludes that it is unlikely that a standard Data Centre design will be able to improve on the 1 unit of power to 0.6 cooling ratio unless there is a change in technology. Yet New types of energy storage and power hold the promise of further efficiency gains once their commercial potential can be proven.

Usefully, the Survey includes an executive summary comprising of 27 key points as a management digest of the entire report. The survey also includes summary boxes throughout containing pertinent comments obtained from interviews conducted for the survey.

• 2nd annual survey Data Centre power and cooling
• Analysis of current status of power and cooling technologies
• Making the data centre Green
• 20 Tables and Charts
• 101 pp (Size 10 font)

• Enterprise Data Centre Owners and Users
• Data Centre Operators
• Telecommunication Service Providers
• Power Companies
• Power and Cooling Solution Providers
• Environmental Agencies
• Technical Property Specialists
• Systems Integrators
• Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Specialists
• Software Companies