Green Grid Guidelines for Energy Efficient Data Centers

Data center cooling requirements for high-heat density servers are driving power demand and taxing the normal data center operational procedures. The good news is there are solutions to this growing problem and IT managers are able to kill two birds with one stone. By fine-tuning data center energy architecture, corporations can reduce their energy consumption while achieving their green data center goals.

This white paper, by The Green Grid, provides guidelines to migrate existing, traditional energy consuming data centers into green, energy efficient data centers that deliver the required data center cooling. It presents how data center energy savings can be accomplished, sometimes by a 90% energy reduction, by making improvements from both an equipment-planning perspective and an operational-practices perspective.

This white paper's guidelines include:

• Engineering for Efficiency
  
  
  
  • Data center system design
  
  
  • Floor layout
  
  
  • Proper configuration of server software
  
  
  • Location of vented floor tiles
  
  
  • Right sized Physical Infrastructure components
  
  
  
  


• Deploying Efficiency
  
  
  
  • Installing energy efficient power equipment
  
  
  • The trend towards closed-coupled cooling
  
  
  • Using virtualization to consolidate existing and future workload
  
  
  • Installing energy efficient lighting
  
  
  • Installing blanking panels in racks
  
  
  • Plumbing for rack level cooling
  
  
  • Development of new server replacement policies
  
  
  
  


• Operating for Efficiency
  
  
  
  • Utilization of air conditioning economizer modes
  
  
  • Coordination of air conditioners
  
  
  
  


• Organizing for Efficiency
  
  
  
  • Alignment of staff
  
  
  • Migration from a traditional energy consuming data center to a modern
    energy efficient data center
  
  
  
  


• Conclusion


• Check list


• Strategies can be used immediate or over time


• Systematic changes can result in up to 90% reduction in data center electric
  bill