Evolving Solutions is happy to announce the launch of our new, value-added service – the Customer Asset Management Portal (CAMP).

CAMP is designed to to provide IT staff and asset management personnel with a single source database for managing multi-vendor technology assets.  Now our customers can access the IT information they need – when they need it.

Our mission is to make it easier for our customers to access and track IT assets under contract.  CAMP was created to significantly improve IT efficiencies.

Read the full press release

Going green has gained a lot of attention recently, especially with the introduction of an energy tax credit for companies that demonstrate energy savings.

As you can imagine, being able to demonstrate that your data center has significantly reduced energy consumption is easier said than done.

Evolving Solutions is now offering a cutting edge service to its customers to measure real-time energy consumption on an ongoing basis. Temperature sensors are attached to cabinets in your data center and smart power strips that are IP enabled are used to measure how much power is being drawn.  All of this data is pumped into a Web portal along with a CAD drawing of the data center layout.  The output is a map of the data center with a data overlay showing which appliances are hot.  All of this happens in real time, which allows you to tactically see what’s happening in your data center and what you need to do to reduce energy consumption.

Some companies that are actively tracking energy consumption in this manner have also uncovered discrepancies with SLAs billing them too much.  They have the exact amount of energy consumed readily available and understand exactly how much they should be paying.

Contact Evolving Solutions to discover how you can increase energy efficiencies within your data center.

Virtualization Expert Victor Avelar

What is the bigger incentive to run an energy efficient data center: saving some money or saving the earth?    Can a data center manager consider both to be equally important or is this line of thinking inherently dangerous?  And where do technologies like server and storage virtualization fit into the mix?

To answer these questions and more, our Data Center Leaders Interview Series turned to Senior Research Analyst from APC Victor Avelar, fresh off his webinar with Aaron Goldberg, Unleashing Virtualization’s Full Energy Savings:

Evolving Solutions:
What tips would you offer for business seeking to reduce data center costs?

Victor Avelar:
In general, the older the data center, the more energy-saving improvements that can be made.

Cooling system improvements are always a good place to start.  If hot and cold aisle containment hasn’t been implemented yet, I would start planning this, so that all future refreshes result in some kind of rack layout relocations that bring the data center closer to 100% hot / cold aisle.

Hot / cold aisle configuration will increase the effectiveness of air distribution and could allow one or more of the air conditioners to be turned off.  Same thing with installing blanking panels in all the empty U spaces of the racks.

Another easy way to save energy costs is to unplug servers that are no longer needed yet are still plugged in.  If there are any windows in the data room / center, cover them up with some insulation to reduce the solar heat gain that the air conditioners must remove.

Evolving Solutions:
Are there inherent dangers in trying to make your data center too cost efficient?

Victor Avelar:
In short the answer is yes.  You can place your critical operations at risk if you don’t understand how an ‘improvement’ impacts other systems.

For example, I could really save energy by turning off some air conditioners but if I’m not careful about monitoring temperature, a few servers may turn off due to thermal shutdown.

However, there’s nothing wrong with going all out to make your data center more cost efficient, the key is to know when you begin to hit the point of diminishing returns.

Evolving Solutions:
The webinar you co-presented with Aaron Goldberg, Unleashing Virtualization’s Full Energy Savings, highlights tactics like server virtualization that will help attendees maximize data center efficiency.  Are solutions like server virtualization geared more towards large data centers, small data centers, or can these solutions be scaled for any size company?

Victor Avelar:
I believe the largest % savings from virtualization go to companies that have hundreds of servers.

Host servers running 40 to 60 virtual machines is very possible and very efficient.  Large companies also have a better chance of rightsizing their power and cooling systems which can reduce the electric bill even further.

This isn’t to say that companies with 50 servers couldn’t benefit, but the savings percent tends to be lower.

Evolving Solutions:
According to survey results published by The Data Center Users Group and reported by SearchDataCenter.com, 47% of data center managers list energy efficiency as their second highest concern.  In a similar survey published four years ago, energy efficiency did not even appear in the top three.  Outside of the desire to save costs, what do you feel has driven the concern over data center energy efficiency so high?

Victor Avelar:
I believe there are a few different reasons for this.  One is definitely psychology.  If my peers are actively pursuing energy efficiency, you can bet that I will follow the herd, since I don’t want to appear clueless.

On a similar vein, the “green movement” has taken hold and companies want to be seen as part of the solution when it comes to saving the earth.  The risk of backlash is too great if they don’t.

Furthermore, if many people are pursuing it, chances are there is some real value there.  Which brings up reason #2; savings.  Done right, energy efficiency can definitely lead to real savings on the electrical bill.  Reason #3 is government regulations.

It’s just a matter of time before the data center industry is acted upon by energy regulations through carbon tax, Energy Star incentives, penalties, and other ways to reduce energy consumption.  Some electric utilities are already providing incentives for companies to reduce power consumption through rebates for buying certain types of IT equipment.

Evolving Solutions:
What products or solutions do you envision contributing to data center efficiency 5 years down the road?

Victor Avelar:
By far the biggest positive impact on energy savings will come from cooling system improvements.  If you look at the efficiency of the power train (i.e. from service entrance to the rack power strips) we have solutions today that result in a power train efficiency of greater than 86%.  The “cooling train” is far less efficient and is fertile ground for improvements in the next five years.

Specifically we’ll see solutions related to free-cooling through air-side and water-side economization.  Of course, the energy savings of these solutions will depend heavily on where in the world you locate your data center.  Other improvements in cooling systems will come from “smart” data center management which makes certain changes to devices based a holistic understanding of the entire ecosystem.

Today, a “good” change made to one device may cause the net power consumption to increase.  The classic example is when one air conditioner is cooling and humidifying while another one is dehumidifying.

Another solution that we’ll see is data center management that not only monitors and controls the white space but also the electrical and mechanical systems.  These management systems will have a holistic view of the entire ecosystem and will be able to alert when the data center efficiency is lower than it should be.

Evolving Solutions:
Wild Card:  Anything else you would like to add?

Victor Avelar:
There is so much information out there today and for the most part it’s pretty accurate.  I encourage all data center operators to read what’s out there so they are at least familiar with various solutions and how they decrease power consumption.