As organizations continue adopting diverse available technologies and increase their reliance on large volumes of data, processing cost effective data centers and server rooms becomes a necessity of their IT arsenal. You will find many companies offering advanced technology and solutions for your server needs, but very few who will do so with the environment in mind. It is all well and good having the best, fastest and most efficient servers money can buy – but if they cannot operate or become faulty in your server room then it is money wasted. While you plan to build or upgrade your server rooms, wouldn’t it be great if you could so and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time? Fortunately, where there is a will there is a way. Here are few steps to ensure that you have green server room in future.
Study the power consumption
The first thing to do is to conduct a thorough study of the complete energy needs of the server room vis a vis the current electricity usage. This will be your standard to gauge how much load you can increase or decrease and by doing so save both energy and operational cost. In most cases, planning for an energy efficient room will see significant decrease in the cost which could be your added incentive to go green.  Use the figure as a benchmark and allow some leniency either side whether your increasing or decreasing.
Optimise the power distribution
When we think of server rooms we think of the IT equipment. In reality these equipment consume only 40% of the energy while the rest is taken up by the lighting and cooling systems, electrical load, and UPS. While you plan and distribute the power better you can also ensure future energy conservation by automating the servers to run on low power mode when not in use, or switch off servers which are unused, to not overcool the server room or to run low power lights when least in use. All of these factors will contribute to a more energy (and money) efficient data centre.
Use energy efficient cooling systems
One of the major areas of power usage in a server room is the cooling system. Though the processors have gotten faster and smaller than ever before, they still generate a lot of heat and need strong cooling systems to balance the temperature. Using energy efficient cooling systems which will work in full power mode when most in use but automatically switch to low mode when the servers are in sleep mode, have enhanced airflow systems are just a few steps you can take to conserve energy.  Keeping these factors in mind during your data centre build will mean that the servers will not encounter further issues when running at full capacity.
Use renewable energy to power the systems
Harnessing solar power to fuel our energy needs is no longer a dream. Why not make use of it to run some of your server room needs. And if you are wondering whether this is feasible then simply look at the Google headquarters in California where 30% of their power is driven by solar energy.
Choose the right vendor
Finally, you need an expert to handle all this for you also this review will help you to find best hosting options. Once you know what you want, you will know who you want. A little bit of research will get you competitive bids from experts who will provide you with a state of the art server room without leaving behind a single carbon footprint. Learn more about hosting reviews and coupons.
One Comment
Roger
October 22, 2014 at 10:50 pmIt is very important to take server room cooling in heavy consideration when updating a server room. Also balancing your distribution of power. Very helpful article.