Carbon commitment and datacentre needs are forcing change

Companies are getting keener on energy use reduction, claims Mike Vinten

Vinten: When the CRC comes in, companies will have to get serious about energy reduction

The fight to convince organisations to reduce energy consumption and consolidate servers seems to be gaining momentum.

HP claimed last year that most European datacentres are operating at 82 per cent of full capacity. This and a lack of energy to power them could hit businesses hard with increased downtime and datacentre failure.

Old, power-hungry servers often cost two to five times that of the initial hardware cost when measured over an average five- to six-year lifetime.

The same HP survey found that 53 per cent of companies said their biggest challenge was a need to improve facilities while reducing capital expenditure.

Many organisations either are addressing or wish to address their datacentre energy and capacity issues. According to one Gartner report, reducing IT costs is now the second most important strategy for CIOs in 2009 — up from 10th in 2008.

Serious consideration should be given to potential energy problems for datacentre IT spend to be worthwhile.

The key is to work closely with a supplier to ensure new technology not only uses less power, but saves money and has the flexibility to grow with the customer’s business.

It is also worth reviewing datacentre expansion capabilities for power and space now, in advance of future squeezes. Yet we often find companies simply trying to keep old processors and energy-hungry servers running.

Some products out now demand less server space and, along with improved energy efficiency, can help customers reduce energy costs.

If the financial benefits are not enough to persuade organisations to invest in such technologies then the government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment, coming into force in January as the first mandatory UK carbon-trading scheme, should definitely increase interest in energy efficient products.

All companies that use more than 6,000MWh per year of electricity will be affected and could become liable for various penalties if they fall foul of the law.

Mike Vinten is chief executive officer at Thesaurus Computer Services