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The Greening of IT
168 How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment

■ Increasing the chilled-water set-point 5 degrees results in 5 percent effi-
ciency improvement.
■ Other advanced cooling technology, such as variable speed CRAC unit
fans and zoned cooling control systems, yields efficiency improvements.
■ Sharing of research clusters (server consolidation) results in greater effi-
ciency without having a negative impact on research productivity.
Consolidation and virtualization of conventional commercial IT work-
loads has like benefits.

Columbia’s Green IT Test Plan

The test plan includes measurements to establish initial state benchmarks.
These benchmarks will be updated as incremental improvements are made.
After instrumentation and baseline data collection are completed, the test
plan includes the following:

■ Replacing old servers using best practices to include 208V e-phase power
distribution (current servers are 120V); efficient UPS; efficient server ptg
power supplies; low power CPUs and memory; and consolidation and vir-
tualization.
■ Adjusting IT server power-saving settings on all clusters and measure
expected reduction in power consumption.
■ Implementing in-row, high-power density rack cooling and measure
actual reduction in cooling load.
■ Adjusting chilled-water set point for in-row racks’ Cabinet Power
Distribution Unit (CDU) and measure actual reduction in cooling loads.

The test objectives include a validation of industry claims of energy sav-
ings (with respect to Columbia’s IT environment) for a number of best prac-
tices and advanced techniques. As part of its analysis, the Columbia IT team
will utilize standard tools and practices for implementing energy-efficient
data centers. The tools will include the DOE DC Pro tool. Measurement
techniques will include those identified in the ASHRAE Workshops on
Improving Data Center Energy Efficiency and Best Practices. Other stan-
dardized techniques, such as potential new ENERGY STAR server and
LEED data center metrics, will also be utilized.