How Data Centers Save Energy Costs that Pass on to Your Business!

The cloud offers companies a way to move IT management and equipment to data centers. Cloud computing warehouses house thousands of computers, and each work in unison to offer small and large companies energy savings. Cloud computing lets you move applications, hardware, platforms and storage into the cloud, which reduces much of the IT overhead and real estate needed to house computer equipment. Not only does it save you money in IT costs, but most data centers work to be energy efficient.

 

Cooling Efficiency

 

Every computer warehouse needs cooling. Computers and network equipment must run in an environment that has low humidity and runs at about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Even with these requirements, data center managers can customize the way the cooling systems work. For instance, data centers can take advantage of outside air to cool systems, and heat can be centralized to keep server areas cool while other areas maintain circulation of hot air for cool air.

 

Virtualization Instead of Physical Servers

 

Virtualization allows data centers to run several virtual machines on one physical machine. This means you can have dozens of servers running on one physical computer. This not only saves the data center money, but it also reduces the amount of space needed to house servers. Virtualized servers also reduce power consumption used by each customer because several customers can take advantage of one physical server.

 

Balance Server Hardware with Usage

 

It wastes energy when you have servers with the best hardware that aren't even used. This can happen with virtual servers or physical servers. Data center managers must analyze which servers have the most usage and balance hardware between high-use servers and servers that have very low traffic. Data center managers also have software that powers servers off and on depending on usage and traffic statistics.

 

Upgrading Equipment

 

Some older equipment can use much more energy than newer equipment. Energy Star equipment uses up to 40% less power than older equipment. Old monitors use much more energy than the latest flat-screens. Solid state drives (SSDs) use much less power than old hard disk drives (HDDs). These hardware components can be costly to replace, but the replacement ultimately saves the data center money in energy costs.

 

Use Data Centers at Night

 

Some big data center companies have locations in several locations. It's more energy efficient to use data centers where it's night, because it's cooler outside. If the data center company has redundancy between locations, the data center can switch usage to another location where it's night to reduce energy costs.

 

Better Emergency Response and Alerts

 

When data center equipment goes down, it can wreak havoc on employees and customers. The alerts result in a redirect of traffic and energy usage, which costs more time and energy to ensure customers are running before fixing the problem. With redundancy and alert management, the data center can lose a server without too many customers affected.

 

The company you choose for cloud computing should take steps to ensure the data center runs with the highest amount of energy efficiency. It's important for the environment, but it's also a cost-savings that passes to your own IT bill.

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