Posted: June 3, 2008

Cassatt Corp. CEO Bill Coleman says data centers are wasting as much as 90% of the electricity they consume because nobody is sure what application is running on which server at any given time. Consequently, every server is kept on all of the time, resulting in an extraordinary waste of electricity.

According to Coleman, over the last five years data centers have become “way too complex,” with more and more functions added on willy-nilly. Servers are connected in arbitrary ways, Coleman told EnergyTechStocks.com. Consequently, he said, every server is kept turned on even on weekends, a time when a data center really only needs to run on about 3% to 4% of its maximum power. Of course, the more servers there are on, the greater the need to cool the data center building, thereby adding to the power wastage.

Why isn’t the IT industry doing more to fix things, especially since the industry is trying so hard to project a “green” public image? To an outsider, Coleman’s answer may seem unbelievable, but he said the simple fact is that many data center managers don’t measure how much electricity their facilities are consuming.

How is this possible? Coleman explained that, in general, the operating budget for a data center doesn’t include the amount of money spent on electricity. That’s part of another budget, the power budget. Another serious problem, he said, is that many data center managers aren’t even aware that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends turning off idle or unused servers to save power. Of course, even if they did know, since they generally don’t know what applications are running on which servers, turning any server off would be difficult.

Coleman said that even when operating at maximum, a data center needs only about 20% of the power most presently consume. Given that power prices are rapidly rising, Coleman said data center operators are finally becoming aware of the need to measure and more efficiently run their operations. He said both Hewlett-Packard and IBM now have major consultancies to help make data centers run more efficiently; however, potential clients fear they’re just going to wind up paying for more equipment, Coleman indicated.

Given all this, Coleman said he expects that in five years data centers will still be wasting an extraordinary amount of electricity – roughly 80% compared with 90% today.

Part 1 of 2 - What a Waste! Expert Says Data Centers Waste Up to 90% of the Electricity They Use