As organizations look ahead to 2011, cost cutting will likely be at the top of IT leaders' priority lists once again. Sometimes overlooked in favor of shorter-term cuts, investments in energy efficiency strategies and lower consumption products can make a big difference in the bottom line. According to current EPA figures, data centers that deliver services such as data storage, communications and Internet accessibility currently account for 1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption, costing businesses $4.5 billion annually. In June the EPA predicted that amount will double in the next five years. This week CDW recently released a report detailing the energy saving habits of more than 750 IT professionals. The following 10 strategies are a collection of best practices observed by successful organizations, as well as recommendations offered by the report based on the most current gaps in current practices. Channel providers who can implement these strategies within their own data centers and in customer environments stand to add significant value through better cost containment.
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Go with LCD screens
Approximately 65 percent of those organizations who reported they've reduced IT energy costs by 1 percent or more say they've migrated their monitors from CRTs to LCDs.
Seek low-power processors
Around 64 percent of successfully efficient organizations are utilizing newer low-power/low wattage processors for servers and other data center equipment. And 59 percent are using these processors in their workstations.
Don't forget the power management tools
Slightly over half of organizations that have achieved more than 1 percent in energy cost savings make full use of their power management tools provided within workstation operating systems.
Smart cooling design
Leverage 10GB Ethernet
Approximately 43 percent of organizations successful at saving energy had redesigned data centers to better balance equipment and cooling needs.
Employ less hungry switches
Among those with an energy efficiency plan, 39 percent of them have deployed more power-efficient core switches and 30 percent have replaced edge and workgroup switches with more power-efficient options.
Aggregate power management at network
Just under a quarter of organizations use the network as a platform to manage and reduce energy use.
Leverage 10GB Ethernet
Approximately 23 percent of organizations with cost-cutting measures have adopted 10GB Ethernet, Infiniband technologies.
Deploy FcOE
Just over 20 percent of organizations have reduced their SAN infrastructure by implementing Fibre-channel Over Ethernet (FcOE).
Top-of-Rack Models
Just under 20 percent of organizations with cost cutting plans have moved to top-of-rack models for access layer switching.
Use Tracking Tools
Almost all organizations could do a better job cutting energy if they knew where they stood. Over 89 percent of organizations currently do not use Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency as a measure and 85 percent do not use Power Usage Effectiveness. The Department of Energy and the EPA both offer programs to assess data center improvements and track progress.
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