by Shane Henson — October 26, 2012—Data centers do not have to be a major drain on a building’s energy and burden to a company’s electricity bill, as a new report from 451 Research shows. The report, Highly Energy-Efficient Datacenters in Practice, examines how many data centers are capitalizing on developments in design, energy management, cooling, and new deployment approaches to improve their energy efficiency. The report includes case studies on 24 of the world’s most highly energy-efficient data centers—some large and well-known, others smaller and more obscure.
The data center owners and operators achieving high energy efficiency demonstrate what can be done through innovation, focus, and investment, says 451 Research. Many of the case studies serve as models for other operators to follow, and many were recognized by the Uptime Institute, a division of The 451 Group, as exemplars of data center efficiency, and were awarded Green Enterprise IT Awards at the Institute’s annual symposium this past May.
Highlights from the report include:
- Large Internet-related companies, such as eBay, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo, represent a new breed of operator taking an integrated approach to achieve significant energy efficiency to cost-effectively meet growing data center demand.
- The proliferation of Internet and cloud computing services will continue to place increased demand and public focus on the data center operations of suppliers. These data centers will continue to be engines of innovation in efficiencies.
- Data center eco-efficient information technology (IT) has moved on from token or one-off efforts to limit energy use to a war on excess resource usage.
- Power and cooling remain the top targets for efficiency. While free cooling is proliferating, operators are being far more cautious with direct current power distribution.
- Though prefabricated modular data centers are not inherently energy efficient, their phased deployment can help operators avoid infrastructure overcapacity.
Facilities managers wanting to learn more about 451 Research’s report can tune in to a Webinar on highly efficient data centers on October 30, 2012, at 11 a.m. EST.
