We talk about greening IT through using network monitoring to better enable server and datacenter consolidation and encouraging virtualization by being able to ensure that applications delivered from an virtual server provide similar performance as applications delivered from a native server. Fewer servers running in fewer far-flung places equals a greener company – and the earth is saved from global warming forever, Al Gore riding off into the sunset on his magical solar-powered flying unicorn. Sort of a Pegasus, is what I think I’m getting at here.
At any rate, the challenge to not only reduce energy consumption but to do it in a way that does not impact network performance is one of the largest challenges that IT faces. InfoWorld’s Ephraim Schwartz has an interesting article on this, pointing out virtualization and server consolidations have their own problems, problems that perhaps can only be fully be solved by teaming up with facilities managers – or even merging the positions. A fully utilized processor takes more power and generates more heat than a partially utilized one, and if you’ve got less of your servers in the branch offices and more in the datacenter, then you have to make sure that the datacenter’s facilities can handle the massive power draw. A blown fuse or circuit breaker taking out a single server is bad enough, but when it takes out tons of them running on a single virtual server, it can be disastrous. As Schwartz writes:
The popularity of energy-saving virtualization technology is one reason IT is getting involved in energy infrastructure management. Here’s why: The use of virtualization reduces the number of servers needed, decreasing overall energy consumption, but there’s now more energy used per server and greater risk to the enterprise if any server fails, since several virtual servers will shut off when the physical server goes.
Suddenly IT finds itself more concerned with increased energy monitoring and cooling at the rack level — having sufficient juice and cooling in the rack room is not good enough, says Gartner’s Cappuccio. That rack-level focus is not an area in which facilities management is experienced.
More than that, however, is the underlying idea that facilities needs to know how much power and cooling each rack needs in order to maintain optimal performance, and IT needs to start selecting hardware taking into consideration the power consumption and heat output of the devices. The two functions overlap.
Even so, there are additional ways that IT and facilities can work together. For example, this ingenious suggestion from Slashdot poster “Tinkerghost”:
Actually, it was mentioned in TFA that having someone remote work doesn’t reduce the energy load @ the office unless the office is smart enough to shut down the extra heating /cooling /lighting. Thus the discussion about tying LDAP logins to the heating /cooling /lighting system. When the last person logs out, shut down the AC/Heating, and 10 minutes later have the lights go out – that type of automation is the heart of using IT & its many tendrils to help reduce corporate energy consumption.
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