One of the biggest concerns of our time is the prospect of global warming. Everywhere we see, whether it is on television or on the newspaper, people are being made to become aware of their carbon footprint and taking the initiative in reducing their carbon emissions. However, as most people are required to measure their carbon footprint, most businesses and technology industries are also being made to monitor theirs.

In particular data centres are subject of carbon management. These use a lot of electricity and energy to run, as they are in operation for 24 hours a day seven days a week. Data centres alone could consume up to fifty times or more power in a single day, which is detrimental for energy efficiency. So what does it take to run energy efficient data centres, without losing the quality in holding a high number of data information?

Electricity costs are a major factor and issue in running a data centre, because there are a high number of computers networked together running at the same time. It is possible for data centres to run on a relatively low amount of energy, reducing the cost of electricity and becoming more energy efficient. The main point to remember is that obviously in a data centre the IT equipment are the general cause of a high level of power consumption, therefore, improving the energy efficiency the equipment will enable you to reduce the cost of the overall electricity.

Al IT equipment needs a cooling unit which will help in keeping the machine running continuously with little maintenance. Most machines and servers now have power management systems that monitor the amount of energy consumption in day and can automatically reduce the amount in times of reduced computational usage. They will help with reducing costs of energy usage, however, they do not necessarily reduce the amount of power consumption.

For energy efficient data centres to run at its optimum level, they will need to reduce energy consumption in other places. As the machines contain their own cooling unit there leaves little reasoning to install normal fans into the room for keep the rooms cool. Furthermore the lighting in the rooms should be kept on a timer, therefore, they should only be used when needed and turned off when it is not necessary to leave them on. This helps with saving yet more money on the overall utility costs.

Using space saving techniques such compiling the servers in server cabinets will help circulate air and keep space between the machines. Most energy inefficient buildings are related to air conditioners, which instead of cooling the units can often do the opposite and consume a lot of power. If air conditioners are used, then they must be pre-tested and engineered to avoid de-humidifying the air, avoid pumping out warm air and allows the circulation of air in shorter distances therefore reducing the amount of power consumption.

The most cost effective way of making data centres energy efficient is by taking the obligatory steps of reducing the immediate and obvious devices that have a high level of power consumption. In particular using energy efficient computing platforms, will help monitor energy consumptions and keep them managed at all times.