Johannesburg, 29 May 2007
CIOs and data centre managers have historically not been too involved with issues like electricity bills. However, as data centres in large corporates bulge in size, and electricity costs continue to rise, power consumption is now a key issue.
This is according to Kwasi Asare, brand manager for IBM Cool Blue, speaking at a press briefing in the US last week.
He says IDC estimates it costs almost $400 000 annually to power a 1 000 volume server-unit data centre.
Asare points out the variable costs of increased processing power - something he sees as implicitly hidden in Moore's Law - now outstrip acquisition costs.
A recent report from the Robert Francis Group concluded power would be the number one issue for most large company IT executives to address over the next two to four years.
Asare's colleague, Gregg McKnight, CTO of IBM Modular Systems, concurs. "People spend more on the power to run the server, over the course of its lifespan, than they do in actually purchasing the server."
"Ignoring this issue will not be an option," notes the report, "power consideration must be incorporated into data centre planning."
Real power and cooling issues can be addressed via a combination of hardware, software and services, adds Asare.
It is essential, he says, that data centre managers plan or modify data centre construction efficiently, monitor power consumption to allow better resource optimisation, and track and adjust power usage over time.
IBM invests $1 billion each year in increasing the efficiency of its own data centres, he adds, illustrating the concern of energy-efficiency.
Related stories:
Blade.Org gains momentum
SA 'quick' to adopt blades
Share