IT Projects Undeterred by Slowing Economy, Experts in Data Center Efficiency in Demand
Data Center growth is expected to skyrocket over the next year. “Despite the challenging market conditions, companies are making major investments in IT infrastructure, reflecting the critical nature of these assets to today’s corporations,” said Michael F Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust. A new survey conducted by Digital Realty Trust indicates that this expansion is driven primarily by disaster recovery and regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as the basic need for more space, connectivity, operational costs, utilization of power and applications. This trend is further emphasized by the focus being placed on data centers as an investment vehicle by several private equity firms.
This trend comes as corporations are facing increased pressure, both internally and externally, to reduce power, operational costs and carbon emissions from data centers. CIO Insight cites a warning from Uptime Institute Founder, Kenneth Brill, that a disaster is lurking for many data center-dependent firms as costs mount and energy efficiencies lag behind. To combat the problem, corporations are increasingly looking to implement new “green” energy-saving initiatives that promise to provide a significant boost to the company’s bottom line while also benefitting the environment. As a result, demand is intensifying for operations professionals with the expertise to address energy concerns.
Executive search firm, A.E. Feldman, has assembled a team of industry veterans currently working with a growing number of corporations with large date centers and energy providers to address this issue. A.E. Feldman is assisting these corporations in implementing the strategic role of “Energy Czar” within their organization, and to identify and place qualified professionals who can design and implement initiatives for maximizing energy efficiency.
Data Centers Growth to Explode
Despite rising energy prices and a slowing economy, the demand for data center space is accelerating according to recent survey compiled by Digital Realty Trust. Among the key finding of the survey:
- Power usage of datacenter centers (average kW use per rack) jumped 12% in 2008 over 2007
- 86% of respondents will definitely/probably expand their number of datacenters in the next 12 months
- 45% of respondents plan to expand in 3 or more locations – an increase of nearly 20% over 2007
- Planned square footage required for an average expansion site jumped 50% from 10,000 square feet in 2007 to 15,000 square feet 2008 - an indication that the scope of datacenter projects has increased significantly in the past year.
- Among companies that are planning datacenter expansions: 83% plan to expand physical space, 77% plan to expand power capabilities, 76% plan to expand cooling capabilities
“It is particularly significant that 86% of companies are planning datacenter expansions in the next 12 months, especially in the context of the current economic environment. Despite the challenging market conditions, companies are making major investments in IT infrastructure, reflecting the critical nature of these assets to today’s corporations,” says Michael F. Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust.
Combating Data Center Waste
Hitachi Data Systems and Brocade compiled a report on the growing need for data center solutions. The report cites some stark statistics:
• 50% of data centers worldwide will have insufficient power and cooling by 2008
• 37% of the data center’s overall power consumption is used by storage
• 40% of the data center’s overall power consumption is used by servers
• 60% of the energy used by traditional data centers to cool their equipment is wasted
CIO Insight quotes Kenneth Brill as saying, “Power consumption is so significant that accommodating the increase in IT power consumption over the next five years will require us to construct 10 major power plants. If current trends continue, we will need another 20 between 2010 and 2015. That’s 30 power plants that need to be built just to accommodate the growth in IT power consumption. ”
The Economics of Energy
“Energy is an untapped reservoir for corporate profitability. That reservoir is filling and remains virtually unaddressed,” says Fred Palmer, Founder and Head of the Palmer Group, an invitation only organization comprised of 60 executives from Fortune 1000 companies in the U.S. and Canada that focuses on best practices in technology.
Palmer contends that implementing energy efficiency controls will be a cultural change. There is a need for more high-level visibility and accountability at the executive level to facilitate what will amount to be significant cost savings.
Company executives must change the way they finance and manage data centers and their components (servers, blades, etc.) in order to save millions—and perhaps tens or hundreds of millions—of dollars, says Brill as reported by CIO Insights. Brill also notes that a single server costs around $2,500 and consumes almost $750 in electricity per year.
Brill adds that the skill set of the CIO is evolving, because the issues at hand are not just technical in nature but also financial, including accounting issues, capital expenditures, budgeting.
Out with the Old
Another significant opportunity for energy savings is to uninstall obsolete equipment. Brill states that up to 30% of the servers in a typical data center are no longer in active production, but they’re still consuming energy, according to CIO Insight. He says they need to be turned off, and removed from the racks.
More information on data center efficiency:
Need for Data Center Efficiency Driving Demand for Talent
Corporations to Hire Talent to Design, Manage Energy Efficiency
Firms Hiring Execs to Reduce Carbon Footprint
Energy is a Bottom Line Issue, Growing Demand for Experts in Data Center Efficiency
