Part three of What do you really mean by Green IT??? Also refer to part one, around green IT with regards to green washing, and part two, around using IT to green the enterprise.
The third area I'd like to address is that of the green data center itself. Most discussion about Green IT focuses on servers, but as I pointed out in the initial blog in this series, this is only a small fraction of the power usage and green house gas generation. Today, I will focus on the data center itself, and in following entries address the other areas I introduced.
Let's start from the outside in. The building, its construction technique, its orientation to the sun, its water usage/management, even its geographic location, all have a major impact on the energy usage and green house gas generation. Simple things, like the color of the roof, can have a huge impact on the roof temperature. This is not a new idea, as my Dad designed a house in Arizona in 1962 that had a white roof and large overhangs to protect the building from the harsh sunlight, making our energy costs the envy of the neighborhood. EDS' new data center in the UK takes advantage of the low local temperatures to cool the data center on all but the hottest days, dramatically reducing energy usage.
Within the data center itself, almost 50% of the energy is consumed by the cooling, lighting and power distribution management. Most of these facilities were built to minimize construction or acquisition costs, not operational costs or total cost of ownership. A good example of this is the typical lighting system which consists of fluorescent fixtures that are arranged in a grid with no comprehension of the equipment to be deployed in the room. In some cases motion sensors control the lights, but in many cases it is a simple wall switch that controls the lights. Aligning the lights on a 45° angle to the floor grid improves interior lighting by eliminating shadows, and changing to more sophisticated controls like DALI can significantly reduce electricity usage while improving working conditions. Changing from dark gray to light cabinets can improve the reflected light from 14% to 70%, eliminating shadows and reducing the amount of lumens needed to provide adequate work lighting.
Systems thinking and focusing on life cycle costs instead of just acquisition costs can lead to some different design decisions that will have major long term savings that are economically viable and ecologically sustainable.
