A catch-22 situation exists in society, as it demands more and more computing power, while the environment demands people use less and less energy, says Vassen Naicker, Western Digital product specialist at Drive Control Corporation.
The answer, believes Naicker, lies in developing highly energy-efficient products, such as hard drives, as small changes can result in huge energy and cost savings.
“Currently available 1TB hard drives have a typical power rating of 13.5W or more, but by developing drives designed according to the Energy Star 4.0 standard and implementing the latest engineering technologies, hard drives can now yield average power savings of 4W to 5W over standard desktop drives,” says Naicker.
Such a reduction in power consumption, notes Naicker, could save up to R80 per drive per year in electricity costs. “This may not sound like much, but in a large data centre with 10 000 hard drives, it adds up to some R800 000 in savings per year.”
These power savings translate to a reduction in CO2 emissions by as much as 60kg per drive per year, according to Naicker. If multiplied by the number of South African users that typically use drives each day, he adds, the number becomes even more staggering.
By using hard drives that are optimised to run at cooler temperatures, further cost and energy savings can be realised, says Naicker.
In short, organisations should invest in technologies that are optimised for energy-efficiency and take note of Energy Star rated products if they want to save costs, be more productive and save the planet at the same time, he concludes.
Related stories:
Crucial considerations for green compliance
It`s possible to save now
IT focuses on CO2 reduction
Share