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Talk to Your Facilities Manager
The IT department might keep scrupulous records and track the performance of its
equipment, but most IT managers don’t see the electrical bill. The facilities group does.
In order to truly understand how much power you’re using (and costing the company),
pick up the phone and punch in the facilities manager’s extension. You might make his day.
At the very least, open some communications with the facilities manager so that he knows
that you are trying to address the power usage problem.

NOTE This disconnect is also affecting how vendors develop equipment. Often, vendors just work
on their one piece of equipment and don’t worry about how their power needs will affect the rest
of the datacenter.

Refer to the Standards
If you’re not sure which equipment to buy and you don’t have the time, patience, or energy
to sit down with product brochures and data sheets, you can still make wise procurement
decisions.
A number of standards are out there that you can refer to. For instance, the 80 Plus
certification program was initiated by electric utilities, and it names power supplies that
achieve 80 percent efficiency at load levels of 20, 50, and 100 percent.
Energy Star is most commonly affiliated with desktop machines, but there is an effort
underway to extend certifications to servers. Certainly, if you purchase a server in Europe, it
will have to be RoHS and IEEE compliant. It’s likely that vendors would tout that feature in
other parts of the world, should their servers be so certified.

Ask for It
Remember 15 years ago when fat-free food was all the rage? To make it taste better it was
jacked up with extra sugar. Remember 5 years ago when the Atkins diet made it forbidden
to eat carbs, but you could eat steak wrapped in bacon and smothered with cheese? In each
case, industry responded to demand. Fifteen years ago store shelves were stocked with fat-
free foods. Five years ago store shelves were stocked with low-carb food.
Industry only responded because customers wanted it. It’s the same way for Green IT
equipment. If you don’t ask your vendors for it, they won’t see the need to make it.

Server Consolidation PART V

Chances are you aren’t going to shut down your datacenter for a weekend, wheel out the
old servers, and install brand new, more powerful ones. It’s more likely that you’re going to
bring in new equipment as your replacement plan dictates. However, when you do start
replacing equipment, it’s a smart idea to consolidate your servers.
By consolidating servers you can:

• Increase utilization of existing hardware from 10 to 15 percent, up to 80 percent
• Reduce servers at a 10-to-1 ratio
• Reduce hardware and operating costs by as much as 50 percent