Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The Energy Efficiency Of Your Server Room

By Dexter Wallslang

As the current economic crisis rages on, its getting more and more important than ever for your computer room to operate with increasing efficiency. But, as always, this is not a new issue " its always looming in the back of your mind, right? Increasing energy efficiency during the last few years has been a major issue in both private and public sectors, and this year its especially important. If youre able to increase the energy efficiency of your company, youll not only save your company a lot of money, but youll also be helping to cut down on carbon emissions by lowering the load on the power grid.

To meet the ever-increasing energy-efficiency demands, equipment producers are inventing new technologies every year and server room operators are therefore able to decrease their energy use in the their buildings. But this is not all that easy " it takes money, and it seems like no matter what is installed, theres always room for improvement.

As everyones budgets continue to drop, the financial blow of your server rooms high energy consumption is becoming much more important for your organization. So heres a small but important list of five recommended practices that can radically improve your server rooms energy efficiency and require very little funding:

1. Improve Under-floor Airflow

2. Improve Under-floor Airflow

3. Install Blanking-Panels

4. Install Blanking Panels

5. Plug Holes in the Raised Floor

What else could you do? Upgrade your equipment. But that takes money, right? Most administrators arent able to come up with the additional funding for increased energy-efficiency server room cooling, airflow designs, or other equipment and hardware. So take the time to analyze the ROI (return on investment) if you were to invest in upgrades. Take a look at the big pictures. What you pay now for expensive but highly-efficient equipment is definitely going to be a smart investment in the long run.

If youre like most administrators, you have superiors whom youll also need to convince. So be sure to justify your investment proposal by calculating the ROI that could come from various scenarios. Youll be able to make it easier for your superiors to lean in your favor if you can successfully create an outline that show the costs of ownership for your different scenarios and do a full cost-benefit analysis for a period of many years. Another suggestion is to not purchase everything at once. As you begin the new approach towards energy-efficiency, you should phase in new hardware and equipment as part of the IT departments natural expansion and evolution.

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