Greener Pastures for Your Data Center

Transcription

1 W H I T E P A P E R Greener Pastures for Your Data Center

2 2 Executive Summary Following a green path, once a concept relegated to a small group of environmentalists and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is turning into a significant concern for organizations worldwide. And with soaring energy prices, shrinking floor space and larger masses of data being generated, the green data center is fast becoming a focal point of interest. Advances in information technology including blade computing, virtualization and server consolidations have all contributed to a changing pattern in data center deployments. The Green IT movement is yet another strategic opportunity to enable cost reductions, increase operational efficiency and ultimately optimize utilization of data center resources. Executives have begun to realize how environmental concern and business success can work in parallel how a green data center may be one of the best ways to accommodate growth and create a positive impact on the organization s bottom line. Evolving to a green data center and optimizing operational efficiency can be considered a complex endeavor. However, by following data center best practices as they relate to careful planning and execution and utilizing a holistic perspective to manage the data center infrastructure, this process can occur in a step-wise manner with measurable benefits being realized along the way. Aperture VISTA, can assist organizations in greening their data centers by providing the building blocks for managing the data center as a single entity and rolling out these best practices processes.

3 3 The Growing Challenges Customers are consistently demanding better performance and high reliability at lower prices. Response to these demands has resulted in the delivery of faster servers, lower-cost storage and more flexible networking equipment. While technology advancements such as high-density blade servers have succeeded in providing the greater performance desired, the data center operational costs associated with such improvements have reached astronomical levels. Ken Brill, founder and executive director of The Uptime Institute Inc., forecasts the beginnings of a potential crisis. The benefits of [Moore s Law] are eroding as the costs of data centers rise dramatically, he states. Increasing demand for power is the culprit, driven by both higher power densities and strong growth in the number of servers in use. In fact, predictions by a variety of industry analysts have indicated severe problems will occur if energy efficiency is not achieved, including: Over the next five years, power failures and limits on power availability will halt data center operations at more than 90 percent of all companies (AFCOM Data Center Institute s Five Bold Predictions, 2006) By 2008, 50 percent of current data centers will have insufficient power and cooling capacity to meet the demands of high-density equipment (Gartner press release, 2006) * In a recent survey of 100 data center operators, 40 percent reported running out of space, power and cooling capacity without sufficient notice (Aperture Research Institute) The increase in the number of installed servers has driven up the power consumption more than any other element within the data center architecture. On average, a medium-size data center can generate 10,000 metric tons of carbon per year due to the power it uses. With high-density servers filling the racks, hot spots are being created that surpass 30 kilowatts per rack. Consequentially, many data center managers are finding they cannot obtain enough power to distribute to the racks or that the power utility is unable to deliver additional capacity. Recent statistics reported by the EPA indicate the total power consumed by servers (including cooling and auxiliary infrastructure) represented approximately 1.2 percent of total U.S. electricity in 2005 more than double the use over 2000 with IT hardware and data centers being the leading national contributor to carbon emissions. The U.S. Federal sector alone is estimated to consume approximately 10 percent of all data center energy use. The chart below indicates the total electricity use for servers in the U.S. and the world in 2000 and 2005, as developed by IDC.

4 4 To further compound the issue, the costs associated with a kilowatt of electricity is rising significantly. Currently, power and cooling costs represent up to 44 percent of a data center s total cost of ownership. The Uptime Institute estimates the current three-year cost of powering and cooling servers is approximately one-and-a-half times the cost of purchasing server hardware. Extending these projections out to 2012 show the multiplier increasing to 22 times the cost of hardware under the worst case scenarios and to almost three times for the best-case situations. The following chart, developed by The Uptime Institute, maps out the cost projections for powering and cooling average servers in a data center (OpEx + amortized CapEx), as it relates to the cost of buying a server.

5 5 Figure 1: Site infrastruture costs (OpEx + amortized CapEx) for data-center power and cooling are a growing percentage of the cost of buying a server. With such exorbitant costs on the rise, it has become quite apparent that substantial improvements in data center efficiency and productivity must be made worldwide. Having the capability to support both current and future needs for computation with reasonable use of the planet s resource is now an imperative that can no longer be ignored.

6 6 Planting the Seeds for the Green Data Center These challenges are not being ignored, as corporations, utilities and governments worldwide are beginning to develop measures to address not only the sky-high energy bills, but new and expanding regulations for the disposal of IT equipment and the growing concern over global warming. The EPA has made recommendations to establish ENERGY STAR labels for servers and potentially storage and networking equipment as well in order to create protocol to measure server energy efficiency and allow for fair competition. Utility companies have begun initiating programs offering rebates for increasing energy efficiency. A research study by Digital Reality Trust reported that 60 percent of companies expect green data center strategies to be a part of future capital spending. A new directive in the European Union has been established to reduce energy usage by 20 percent by Some high-profile efforts have already been instilled to showcase green data centers including the first green data center built in August 2005 for Fannie Mae and Sun s new data center built in GREEN DATA CENTERS IN THE MAKING The first green data center was built in August 2005 for the Fannie Mae Urbana Technology Center (UTC), an environmentally sustainable 247,000 square-foot data center and office building. The UTC has earned a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. With creative design to boost sustainability and provide adequate support for computers, security, lighting and power redundancy, overall energy consumption was reduced by 20 percent. Another high profile example of a green data center was built for Sun in 2007, which has resulted in a dramatic decline in electricity use. New server technology and state-of-the-art cooling systems were deployed, consolidation of its Silicon Valley data centers occurred, and square footage was halved contributing to a nearly 61 percent reduction in power consumption. Sun reduced the number of servers from 2,177 to 1,240, but computing power has reportedly increased by 456 percent, accomplished primarily by investments in virtualization.

7 7 In addition, a survey conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates questioned more than 400 corporate leaders from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada and China regarding their awareness of Green IT. Although few had put any strategic initiatives in place, the vast majority were very aware of the environmental issues, as shown in the chart below. One of the major reasons corporations have not implemented a green strategy is due to confusion as to what constitutes the best approach and what measures can successfully gauge whether specific strategies and technologies actually work. There is no clear industry standard with regards to measuring energy efficiency within data centers, but it is quite evident that a roadmap to assist companies in these efforts is desperately needed. In response to the lack of standards and confusion, a new non-profit initiative The Green Grid ( to promote energy efficiency and lower the overall consumption of power in data centers has been established by a consortium of information technology companies and professionals. By providing data and guidance, The Green Grid expects to assist data center managers in making better decisions with respect to design, planning, deployment and day-to-day operations. Their primary mission is to: * Create shared definitions, benchmarks and metrics to enable real-time measurement, monitoring and control of data center efficiency and productivity * Create baseline state-of-the-industry documentation, including benchmark architectures and a knowledge repository for data center efficiency

8 8 * Create a comprehensive technology roadmap for future data center design that maximizes efficiency * Assess new and alternate data center technologies * Monitor progress The group is currently in the process of collecting real-time data from data centers in order to allow data center managers and operators to assess their performance and benchmark against similar data centers. From this analysis, an initial technology roadmap and a baseline set of best practices will be developed for data center managers to use as needed. The Green Grid encourages data center managers to use one of two fundamental metrics for measuring data center effectiveness and efficiency the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and its inverse, the Data Center Efficiency (DCE). Source: The Green Grid, 2007.

9 9 The PUE (also called the Energy Efficiency Ratio EER by the EPA) represents the amount of total power entering the data center facility divided by the power delivered (and consumed) by computing resources. The smaller the ratio is, the greater the amount of power entering the facility that is used directly by computing (IT) resources. Many industry analysts have stated that the ultimate goal is to obtain a PUE ratio of 2 ; however, this measurement varies from organization to organization. In order to manage operations to the PUE ratio, data center managers and operator must fully understand the infrastructure components affecting Total Facility Power such as if the chillers and/or power are the inefficient factors. The Green Grid hopes to provide organizations with the ability to measure and monitor power consumption, data center efficiency and data center productivity in real-time. The development of standardized performance measurements and benchmarks for IT equipment and data centers are critical to achieving operational efficiency. If the industry does not succeed in establishing the necessary measurements, the EPA will be required to step in and establish mandates to reduce power consumption. Steps to the Greener Paster Without established industry standards, what is the best way to evolve to a green data center that is focused on energy efficiency? How do data center managers and facilities managers understand the most cost effective means to implement the green data center? Although there is no single solution, there are many steps that can be taken to help improve productivity and efficiency. By implementing data center best practices and taking a holistic perspective to manage operations, such as with Aperture VISTA, you can create a robust decision support system to monitor and measure productivity and efficiency. A critical element to take note of; however, is to not invest in green just for the sake of green. Although beneficial from a marketing and PR standpoint, a clear business case should always be made with these types of initiatives. 1. Eliminate Ghost Servers. Many of today s data centers contain approximately 8 to 10 percent of servers that have no identifiable function. Technically considered dead with regards to serving the organization, these ghost servers can still haunt an organization by consuming IT resources. These forgotten and usually undocumented and unprotected pieces of

10 10 equipment take up valuable floor space, consume power needed elsewhere and can become a ripe target for hackers. By implementing a formal decommissioning process to eliminate these ghost servers, an immediate cost savings can be realized. Estimates currently indicate that by removing just one physical server from service can save $560 annually in electricity costs, assuming 8 cents per kilowatt-hour cost. Aperture VISTA has helped thousands of organizations worldwide to implement a formal process framework to manage all equipment changes, installs and decommissions. With Aperture VISTA, organizations can obtain a comprehensive look into the inventory within the data center, track and document all assets and effectively decommission ghost servers to eliminate unnecessary costs to the organization. 2. Improving Resource Utilization. Additional measures that can lead to a greener data center relate to the optimization of data center resources. Organizations must manage the data center infrastructure according to the specific power and cooling profiles required. At the time of a facility design or build out, organizations typically pre-determine specific operating guidelines for racks including power and cooling limits in order to properly design the power and cooling infrastructure. Currently, many organizations lack quality information sources on power consumption and heat output, which causes operations to run well below the designed levels effectively underutilizing these critical resources. Whether a data center is comprised of high-density or low-density servers, Aperture VISTA can assist data center managers and facility managers in designing the physical layout to meet specific capabilities, to avoid disruptions and to reach optimal utilization. Aperture VISTA combines real-time measured values and manufacturer specifications with a detailed model of the data center, enabling organizations to recapture unused resources. 3. Eliminate the barriers between IT and Facilities. In many companies, the IT and Data Center Facilities groups continue to operate as two separate and distinct organizations with little communication and interaction. As stated by the EPA in their Report to Congress, in many data centers those responsible for purchasing and operating IT equipment are not the same as those responsible for the power and cooling infrastructure leading to split incentives. Thus, those most capable of controlling the use of energy have very little incentive to do so. A single business model where both IT and Facilities work together and let the economics drive the solutions as well as implementing chargeback for power will be critical to harness the power and cooling resources within the data center. Only through a tightly integrated group that combines both IT and Facilities cohesively, can an organization fill in the necessary gaps and improve the overall business process to understand metrics to move to a greener path.

11 11 Aperture VISTA is an enterprise management system used by both IT and Facilities groups to manage data centers. For those individuals that select and provision the servers and manage the overall facility, Aperture VISTA helps bring the team together from a process perspective and data center power into a greater IT chargeback model. 4. Implement standardized performance measurements. Another initiative that will assist organizations in becoming more eco-computing conscious is the implementation of standardized performance measurements and incorporation of processes to monitor the entire data center from a holistic perspective. By assessing and reporting on the energy performance including power distribution and power cooling as well as benchmarking will help data center managers better understand the relationships between power distribution and consumption. In energy efficiency management, measurement goes far beyond just calculating the ratios, but truly understanding what is behind the ratios. Better analysis, planning and execution of a green data center can only occur when the underlying relationships are understood and the data center is managed from a holistic perspective. In the long-term, the EPA is recommending the Federal government and industry work together to develop an objective and credible energy performance rating system for data centers. These metrics, currently the PUE and EER, are expected to initially addressing the infrastructure portion, but extend when possible to include metrics for productivity and work output of IT equipment, to account for differences in computing output and availability requirements. Aperture VISTA can help organizations not only determine where they stand with regards to the PUE and EER ratios, but also drill further down into the reasons behind the ratios themselves including optimizing the power and cooling infrastructure. 5. Evaluate investment alternatives to upgrade the data center equipment. Many data centers in operation today were built prior to 2002 and did not include design specifications to support high-density operation and deliver power and cooling to racks operating at over 2 KW. By assessing the needs of the organization, evaluating design alternatives to dramatically reduce power requirements within the infrastructure and applying innovative technologies, significant computing power per kilowatt can be recognized. Just by replacing legacy equipment with newer, energy efficient models, the overall power and cooling requirements within a data center can be significantly reduced as well as freeing up valuable floor space. In addition, leveraging virtualization which enables multiple application workloads and eliminates the need of dedicating individual workloads to a single server can reduce heat and energy costs as well as improve operations by managing resources from a single point of control. Aperture VISTA can provide the necessary management framework to optimize the space, power and cooling resources within the data center. Economical evaluations on the types of investments to make into high-density equipment, virtualization and ENERGY STAR-rated servers can be intelligently made to justify to costs towards energy efficiency.

12 12 Conclusion Following a greener path has become much more than an altruistic endeavor. Organizations are focusing on developing green data centers in order to reduce the exorbitant power and cooling costs as well as improve operational efficiency. It is quite apparent that the need to construct and operate green buildings will be more and more important - for shareholder value and for the environment. New and emerging tactics and technologies to develop solutions that address today's critical business needs and environmental requirements will deliver economic benefits in an environmentally sound manner, while addressing power and cooling issues in the data center. Decision support systems, such as Aperture VISTA, can assist data centers in becoming greener by allowing data center managers manage the physical infrastructure from a holistic perspective and in an integrated process. This white paper was sponsored by Aperture Technologies, Inc.

13 About Aperture Aperture is the leading global provider of software for managing the physical infrastructure of data centers. Aperture s solutions reduce operational risk and improve efficiency through the planning and management of data center resources. Aperture delivers the best practice processes that enable organizations to take control of an increasingly complex physical infrastructure including equipment, space, power, cooling, network and storage. With over 20 years of experience, Aperture provides organizations with the information required to optimize their data center operations, delivering better services at the lowest cost. Aperture s customers include the world s largest companies, half of which are Fortune 1000 and Global 500 organizations All rights reserved. Aperture and Aperture VISTA are registered trademarks and the Aperture logo mark is a trademark of Aperture Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners