Energy consumption is most likely one of the biggest concerns to data center owners or managers. Energy cost can drive the profit margin of any data center down quickly, or even cause substantial financial loss. Energy costs are rising every year, making it more and more difficult to make money offering IT services. Some data centers even use diesel generators to prevent downtime for their servers, leading to pollution and additional costs in fuel. In some regions data centers are being added to watch lists as potential violators of pollution laws. Efficient data center power distribution isn’t achieved by using the latest and greatest hardware, although newer hardware can run more efficiently, so there are several steps that can be taken to achieve efficient power distribution.
When keeping data center power distribution in mind arranging servers and other computer hardware can be configured in several different ways. Some servers with lighter work loads can be consolidated into one machine, using virtualization several different servers can be combined in a single server box. Cooling and heat distribution can play a major role in energy use. By arranging servers in a way that allows them to dissipate heat more easily cooling mechanisms won’t have to work as hard. Some server cabinet providers offer “intelligent racks”, these intelligent racks offer better power distribution and more efficient cooling. Solar panels and other “green” energy solutions are a much better solution to power backup, they can save money and prevent having a serious impact on the environment.
Floor plans and layouts play a big role in how efficiently a data center operates, but software plays a bigger role. Some operating systems are known to run more efficiently, some of them even come with tools to optimize many different features that save power. In some cases only a certain operating system can be implemented in order to make everything work together, other data center deployments are more flexible. If only a certain operating system can be used there are various software packages that can be installed to make that operating system work more efficiently or even add power saving features. Visit Raritandcim.com for more information.