Study shows that the effort is part of corporate social responsibility goals
Amit Roy Choudhury, Business Times 3 Dec 07;
A NEW study has revealed a welcome trend among Singapore and Asia-Pacific companies: they are more aware of the harmful environmental effects that large, power hungry data centres have and are looking at ways to make these centres more environmentally friendly.
The 2007 Green Data Centre report by Symantec shows that three-fourths of the survey respondents have an interest in adopting a strategic green data centre initiative.
However, the flip side, according to Symantec's Darric Hor, is that only one in seven have been successful at implementing a green data centre, 'illustrating a stark contrast between interest and execution'.
Mr Hor, who is general manager of Symantec Singapore, noted that for the purpose of the study a green data centre has been defined as one which has increased efficiencies in energy usage, power consumption, space utilisation and reduction of polluting energy sources.
'Data centre managers are running out of space and energy costs are skyrocketing, so they are motivated to 'green' the data centre for cost reduction and efficiency purposes,' Mr Hor noted. However, a clear motivator that separates Singapore and other Asia-Pacific countries from other regions is that the 'greening the data centre' rollouts are being done more from a sense of responsibility to the community, rather than being driven by cost savings and business profitability demands alone, he added.
The study notes that 66 per cent of respondents in Asia-Pacific, including Japan, (APJ), indicated energy efficiency is either a critical or high priority concern in their data centres.
While 76 per cent of APJ companies are at least considering a green strategy, only one in six (16 per cent) have begun implementing a green data centre.
Mr Hor said it was pleasing to note that the Singapore and Asia-Pacific managers who responded to this survey adopted corporate social responsibility positions.
'In some cases, corporate boards have developed a triple bottom line that includes formal metrics to measure economic, social, and environmental success,' he said.
'To meet their environmental objectives, some companies have pledged to reduce total energy consumption, while others have stated their intent to reduce their carbon footprint.' The Symantec official noted that many data centre professionals are increasingly turning to software solutions, including those that manage server consolidation and virtualised environments, as they develop and implement their green initiative.
In their responses to the survey, data centre managers have indicated that software designed for server consolidation and server virtualisation are the most popular solutions in creating energy efficiencies, with 51 per cent and 47 per cent indicating plans to consolidate and virtualise servers respectively.
Around 68 per cent of respondents indicate that reducing energy played a role in their decision to implement virtualisation and server consolidation.
In addition to server consolidation and virtualisation, those who implement a green data centre strategy are more likely to use software for storage resource management, server management and data deduplication.
Irrespective of the technique used, at the end of the day Singapore enterprises will gain in cost reduction and increased efficiency from their 'green' initiatives, and from unifying the initiatives seamlessly with their business demands, Mr Hor noted.
'They need to also manage the pervasive challenges in the data centre complexity - particularly around server consolidation and virtualisation.'
Singapore based CIOs (chief information officers) today have a unique opportunity to strengthen their companies' green efforts through a variety of measures, the Symantec official said.
'They need to develop the company's strategy to accommodate tighter IT asset management and impress on vendors the need to use less toxic substances and more energy-efficient technologies.'
The survey respondents revealed that most data centre managers are at least planning to implement power management products, with 30 per cent implementing on selected equipment, 13 per cent on equipment throughout the data centre, and 34 per cent either planning to use or currently evaluating.
Mr Hor noted that in addition to server virtualisation and consolidation, energy efficient CPUs were the second-most popular technology for data centre power reduction, with 28 per cent of respondents citing this as one of the two technologies they think will reduce power consumption.
The following were also described as possible solutions that respondents either plan to implement, or are currently implementing: replacing old equipment with more energy-efficient equipment (44 per cent); recycling obsolete hardware components (39 per cent); monitoring power consumption (38 per cent); and reducing the space used by servers (37 per cent).
'The findings indicate that cost savings and constant business pressure to maintain performance and meet increasingly aggressive service level agreements are the main reasons for implementing many green strategies.
For them it's beyond environmental concerns - it's about meeting business goals and reducing costs,' Mr Hor noted.
However, the survey participants noted that while energy efficiency is a priority, it must be balanced by business needs: 'The increasing emphasis on creating energy efficiencies has added another layer of complexity in managing today's data centre.'
