Server Room Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is not a new issue ” its probably always running through the back of your mind, especially now as the current economic crisis continues. Its become more and more important than ever that your server room operates with better efficiency. This is an major subject of concern for both private and public sectors, and this year is definitely no exception. If youre able to successfully improve the energy efficiency in your data center, youre going to save your organization a lot of money, and youll be cutting down on carbon emissions caused by your servers demands on the power grid.

Equipment producers are inventing and creating new technologies every year in order to accommodate ever-increasing demands. This is enabling server room administrators to decrease their energy use in their buildings, but only if they have the funding. Thats always the most difficult part. And even if you manage to get the funding and implement new systems, it seems like 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. Implement Hot Aisles and Cold Aisles

2. Coordinate CRAC Units

3. Install Blanking Panels

4. Plug Holes in the Raised Floor

5. Organize CRAC Units

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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