Welcome back! Previously we learn about "What data center professional should know about Data Center Facility Audit Services?" Today you will learn how to optimize your data center easily. But before we go directly on the topic for the day, let us learn now on why a data center should optimize its data center operations an the benefit of it.
Why should a data center optimize its data center operations?
By optimizing data center operations,
data center can reduce energy bill, create efficiency within the workforce,
improve the IT department’s workload, save the environment, cut ancillary costs
and improve network security. It is also about meeting the most up-to-date best
practice guidelines, saving money and driving efficiency within your sales,
customer relations, storage and security processes.
Benefits of Optimizing Data Center Operations?
Although it might represent
extra workload and more money initially, in the long run optimizing your data
center will pay for itself. Optimization will involve changes to your storage
facility, upgrading your equipment - and perhaps adapting your management
strategy and methodology. Completed optimization of your data center operation
and maintenance could drastically reduce your company’s overall IT bill – and
that could reap rewards for years to come. Below are 8 tips all data should
know before optimizing its data center operations.
Get 8 tips to optimize your data center operation now!
1. Conduct a general audit to review costs
One tried and tested method
to review costs is to have a specialist review your current data center operational
procedures to determine where you might add efficiency, which will assist in
reducing budget requirements.
2. Audit and measure power consumption
Unless you know what you are
currently using in terms of total power consumption and space you can’t work
out how much you could save or where improvements can be made, so auditing is
vital. Data Center auditor can conduct data center audit using specialist software to measure power
consumption on a frame-by-frame basis.
Power consumption monitoring
is an important part of such an audit. Specialist data storage companies have
tools that go beyond conventional rack energy monitoring tools, and they even
use a needle to visually display power usage in real-time. This enables regular
power reporting and also lets administrators set power usage caps on particular
servers.
3.
Implement power-saving technologies
One metric used to determine
the energy efficiency of a data center is PUE, or Power Usage
Effectiveness. It’s defined by dividing the amount of power entering a data
center by the power used to run the computer infrastructure within it.
Inefficient data centers
have a high PUE ratio, in that operating expenses of the facility (cooling,
lighting, auxiliary power) are higher than they should be – so optimization
will be necessary.
Operators with a low PUE
ratio have lower running costs, and the key to achieving this is by
implementing the power-saving technologies that are available.
4.
Use Direct Current (D/C) supply to save more
power
Your data center might
flicker between alternating and direct current (AC/DC), which wastes energy by
emitting waste heat and increases the need for an expensive cooling system.
It’s more efficient to power servers directly from a central DC (Direct
Current) supply, and that could save 10 to 20 per cent of the data center’s total
energy consumption.
Or you could deploy higher-voltage
air conditioning within the data center, if it’s needed. In some cases this can
reduce energy loss by up to 10 per cent.
5. Go virtual to reduce predicted costs
According to recent industry
figures over half of businesses measure their power usage in their own data
center operating procedure, and almost all of them believe that being able to
measure power consumption is incredibly valuable.
Server visualization is a
hot topic in optimization, mainly because of the predicted cost reductions and
energy savings it can create. In the long run, visualization should decrease
hardware costs and lead to massive energy-saving – but initial costs are high.
Virtualisation involves
putting virtual servers on a single device, but potentially although this will
result in less servers overall, you might need bigger and more powerful servers
because of the increased demand.
6. Compartmentalize and segregate
Mechanical and electrical
(M&E) systems in data storage operations are designed around variables like
temperature or humidity, but paying attention to your data center's total
capacity versus how much you actually use is more important at the start. If,
for example, you can work out how to turn off the air-conditioning to a whole
computer room at once, you could save a huge amount in energy and costs.
7. Turn off servers when it’s not needed
Software products are
available that can analyse data center activity and turn off servers that
aren’t needed, such as development servers still turned on at midnight that
don’t need to be. Work out exactly when your data center servers can be turned
off during periods of low activity and schedule in when certain servers can be
turned off.
8. Find a low-cost data center location
The next thing we will focus
at is finding a low cost data center location.
If your business is using an
off-site data center facility it should make sure it’s close by to your
company. And consider that three of the main deciding factors influencing data
center locations are accessibility to major transport hubs, the technical talent
of the local workforce and access to high-speed communications like broadband
and telecom networks.
Tech giants Apple, Google
and Facebook are taking advantage of relatively low land and power costs by
locating their data center hubs in smaller city areas where the appeal of
intangible benefits, tax and property breaks are enticing high-tech companies
to relocate their data center operations.
Consider
these eight factors if you’re figuring out ways to optimize your data center operations
- reducing unnecessary expenses can only be good for business in the end.
Thank you for reading, if
you find this article interesting, feel free to share it out to your business
associates, data center professionals.
Should you have any additional you are most welcome to
submit your questions here.
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