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Grow a Greener Data Center
A guide to building and operating energy-efficient,
ecologically sensitive IT and Facilities infrastructure
Conventional Data Centers can have a huge impact upon the environment, using massive amounts of energy and water, emitting pollutants, and discarding huge quantities of machine waste. Their insatiable demand for energy and often inefficient designs make Data Centers expensive to operate and prime targets for future environmental regulation.
Fortunately, it’s now possible to design a Data Center that consumes fewer resources, costs less money to run, has a longer usable lifespan, and can even highlight a company’s social responsibility. Grow a Greener Data Center shows how.
Douglas Alger makes the business case for greening Data Centers and presents technologies, design strategies, and operational approaches to help any company improve the energy efficiency and “eco-friendliness” of their IT hosting environments. He provides multiple strategies for “greening” each phase of a new Data Center project–selecting a site, designing and building the facility, and choosing hardware–as well as tips for retrofitting an existing server environment.
Alger explores IT and facilities technology areas as well as broader green building practices, including building material selection, electrical system design, use of alternative energy, cooling system design, cabling media choices, fire suppression options, water conservation practices, landscaping strategies, recycling programs, e-waste management, and more.
Related Title:
Build the Best Data Center Facility for Your Business
ISBN-10: 1-58705-182-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-58705-182-1
Category: Data Center
Covers: Green IT
Green Data Center Design and Build Strategies
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 3 and Index)
Introduction xvii
Chapter 1 Going Green in the Data Center 1
Defining Green 1
The Reasons to Go Green 2
Growing Power Demand, Shrinking Availability 2
Monetary Benefits 5
Capacity Gains 9
Increasing Regulation 10
Recent Government Green Commitments 10
Multicountry Green Commitments 11
Technology Advances 14
Public Perception 15
If You Don’t Own Your Data Centers 18
Resistance to Green 20
Green Incentive Programs 22
Utility Companies 22
Government Programs 24
Who Is Going Green 25
Green from the Start 26
Greenest Company in the World 26
Most Socially Responsible 26
Financial Institutions 27
Citigroup 28
HSBC Group 29
Technology Companies 29
Cisco 29
Hewlett-Packard Company 30
IBM 31
Retailers 31
The Home Depot 32
Wal-Mart 32
Chapter 2 Measuring Green Data Centers 35
Why Measure in the Data Center 35
What to Measure in the Data Center 36
Energy Usage 36
Carbon Footprint 37
Other Data Center Elements 39
Environmental Building Assessment Systems 39
Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method
(BREEAM) 41
Green Globes 42
Haute Qualité Environmentale (HQE) 43
Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method (HK-BEAM) 44
Ecology, Energy Saving, Waste Reduction, and Health (EEWH) 45
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 46
National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) 48
Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental Efficiency
(CASBEE) 49
Green Star 50
Green Mark 51
Comprehensive Environmental Performance Assessment Scheme (CEPAS) 51
German Sustainable Building Certificate 52
Summary of Environmental Building Assessment Systems 53
Organizations Influencing Green Data Center Metrics 56
The European Commission 56
The Green Grid 57
Uptime Institute 57
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 58
Data Center Green Metrics 59
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) 59
Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCIE) 60
Compute Power Efficiency (CPE) 63
Technology Carbon Efficiency (TCE) 64
Corporate Average Data Center Efficiency (CADE) 65
Data Center Productivity (DCP) 68
Usage of Metrics 68
Chapter 3 Green Design and Build Strategies 71
Siting the Data Center 71
Building Design and Material Selection 73
Avoiding the Landfill 73
Embodied Energy and Emissions 76
Maintaining Air Quality 78
Choosing Efficient Fixtures and Appliances 80
Data Center Configuration 82
Building Exterior 82
Landscaping 85
Strategies for a Greener Construction Site 89
Building Commissioning 90
Retrofitting an Existing Data Center 91
Chapter 4 Powering Your Way to a Greener Data Center 93
How a Data Center Consumes Energy 93
The Carbon Factor 95
Alternative Energy Sources 101
Biofuels 102
Fuel Cells 102
Hydropower 105
Hydroelectric Dams 105
Tidal Power 106
Wave Power 107
Solar 107
Wind 108
Designing a Data Center Power System for Maximum Efficiency 109
Direct Current Versus Alternating Current 109
Power Distribution Units 112
Uninterruptible Power Sources 114
Generators 116
Lighting 118
Power Monitoring 119
Overhead Versus Under-Floor Distribution 119
Chapter 5 Cooling Your Way to a Greener Data Center 123
Setting Data Center Temperatures 123
Heat Recovery and Reuse 127
Using Waste Heat from the Data Center 127
Using Waste Heat for the Data Center 129
Mechanical System Opportunities for Efficiency 129
Economizers 130
Heat Wheel 132
Geothermal Cooling 132
Minimizing Partial Loads 133
Variable Frequency Drives 135
Cooling Tower Water 137
Hosting Environment Opportunities for Efficiency 138
Air- Versus Liquid-Based Cooling 139
Optimizing Airflow 141
Isolating Hot and Cold Airflow 141
Plenum 143
Sealing Unwanted Gaps 145
Cabinet Solutions 146
Mapping and Managing Hot Spots 146
Equipment Choices and Distribution 147
Cooling Distribution 148
Chapter 6 Cabling Your Way to a Greener Data Center 151
Cabling Choices 151
Manufacturing Considerations 152
Form Factor 153
Usable Lifespan 153
Power Consumption 154
Streamlining Cabling 157
Structured Cabling 157
Patch Cords 164
Chapter 7 Refrigerants and Fire Suppressants 169
Data Centers and the Ozone Layer 169
Evolution of Refrigerants 170
Evolution of Fire Suppressants 171
Greener Approaches to Refrigerants 175
Greener Fire Suppression Options 176
Changing Environmental Regulations 177
Fire in the Data Center 178
Chapter 8 Choosing Greener Gear 183
Environmental Impact of IT Hardware 183
Hardware Energy Efficiency Targets 185
Energy Star Specifications 185
Climate Savers Computing Initiative 187
Efficiency Metrics for Hardware 189
Energy Consumption Rating (ECR) 189
Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) 190
Space, Watts, and Performance (SWaP) 190
Hardware Utilization 191
Beyond Energy Consumption and Utilization 192
How Budget Process Impacts Hardware Choices 194
Idling Servers 196
Eliminating Less Efficient Hardware 197
Chapter 9 Greening Your Data Center Through Consolidation, Virtualization, and
Automation 201
Vision: The Service-Oriented Data Center 201
From Dedicated to Service-Oriented: a Paradigm Shift 203
Optimization Opportunities 208
Consolidation and Standardization 210
Less Is More 211
Consolidation Areas 214
Network 214
Compute Resources 218
Storage 220
Application and Database 224
Facilities 225
Additional Benefits and Challenges 226
Virtualization 227
Abstraction Layer 228
Virtualization Areas 229
Network Virtualization 229
Compute Resource Virtualization 231
Storage Virtualization 234
Application and Database Virtualization 238
Facilities Virtualization 239
Additional Benefits and Challenges 240
Integrated Automation 241
Dynamic Cooling 242
Idling Servers 242
Follow-the-Moon 243
Alternative Data Center Operating Models 243
Content and Application Delivery Networks 243
Everything-as-a-Service 244
Cloud Computing 244
Chapter 10 Greening Other Business Practices 247
Data-Center Consumables 247
E-Waste 248
Non-Data Center Consumables 249
Power Efficiency Outside the Data Center 250
Alternative Transportation 252
Appendix Sources of Data Center Green Information 255
Glossary 263
TOC, 9781587058134, 7.24.09