A significant amount of electricity is spent to ensure the efficient operation of data centers today. In 2013, data centers in the USA alone consumed 91 billion kilowatt-hours of energy, equivalent to the annual output of 34 large coal-fired power plants.
Electricity remains one of the main expenses for data center owners, prompting them to seek efficiency of their computational infrastructure. Various technical solutions are implemented for this purpose, some of which we will discuss today.
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Virtualization
When it comes to improving energy efficiency, virtualization has several undeniable advantages. Firstly, consolidating existing services on fewer hardware servers allows savings on hardware maintenance, which translates to reduced cooling, electricity, and space costs. Secondly, virtualization enables optimization of hardware resource use and flexible of virtual capacities during operation.
Companies NRDC and Anthesis conducted a joint study and found that replacing 3,100 servers with 150 virtual hosts could result in a $2.1 million annual savings in electricity costs. The organization in question saved on maintenance and equipment purchases, reduced the number of system administrators, ensured data recovery in case of any issues, and eliminated the need to build another data center.
According to the results of Gartner forecasts that by 2016, the virtualization level in many companies will exceed 75%, and the market will be valued at $5.6 billion. However, certain factors hinder the widespread adoption of virtualization. One of the main reasons is the complexity of 'restructuring' data centers to a new operational model, as the costs often outweigh the potential benefits.
Energy Consumption Management Systems
These systems can enhance the energy efficiency of cooling systems or reduce the energy consumption of IT equipment, ultimately leading to minimized costs. In this case, a special , which monitors server activity, energy consumption, and costs, automatically redistributing load and even shutting down equipment.
One type of software for managing energy consumption is Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) systems, which are used to control, analyze, and forecast energy efficiency metrics of various equipment. Most DCIM tools are not used for direct monitoring of IT and other equipment's energy consumption, but many systems are equipped with PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) calculators. According to Intel and Dell DCIM data, such solutions 53% of IT managers.
Today, most hardware is already designed for energy-efficient consumption, but during the procurement of hardware, greater attention is often paid to the initial price or performance rather than the total cost of ownership, leading to energy-efficient equipment being In addition to reducing electricity bills, such equipment CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
Data compression
There are also less obvious approaches to improving energy efficiency in data centers, such as reducing the volume of stored data. Compressing rarely used data can save up to 30% of energy, even considering that resources are also consumed for compression and decompression. Data deduplication can provide an even more attractive result – 40–50%. It is worth noting that reducing electricity consumption is also aided by using low-power storage for 'cold' data.
Shutting down 'zombie servers'.
One of the issues leading to inefficient electricity consumption in data centers is idle equipment. Experts believe that some companies cannot realistically assess the necessary amount of resources, while others purchase server capacity with future expansion in mind. As a result, nearly 30% of servers sit idle, consuming energy worth $30 billion annually.
At the same time, according to a study, IT managers Identifying 15 to 30% of installed servers, but not decommissioning equipment for fear of potential consequences. Only 14% of respondents tracked unused servers and knew their approximate numbers.
One solution to this problem is to use public clouds with a pay-as-you-go model, where a company pays only for the resources it actually uses. Many companies already operate under this model, and the owner of the Aligned Energy data center in Plano, Texas, claims it allows clients to save between 30% and 50% annually.
Management of the data center microclimate
Affects Excessively high humidity can lead to various equipment malfunctions, increased wear, and corrosion, while excessively low humidity can result in static electricity discharges.
ASHRAE Effective airflow distribution can also save 20-25% of consumed electricity. This is aided by the proper placement of equipment racks: segregating data center machine rooms into 'cold' and 'hot' aisles. It is necessary to ensure aisle isolation: installing perforated tiles in required areas and using blanking panels between server rows to prevent airflow mixing.
It is also advisable to consider not only the placement of the equipment but also the location of the climate control system. When separating the hall into 'cold' and 'hot' aisles, air conditioners should be installed perpendicular to the hot air streams to prevent them from entering the cold air aisle.
It is also important to consider not only the placement of the equipment but also the position of the climate control system. When dividing the area into 'cold' and 'hot' corridors, air conditioners should be installed perpendicular to the hot air streams to prevent the latter from entering the corridor with cold air.
An equally important aspect of effective temperature management in data centers is the arrangement of cables, which can obstruct airflow, reducing static pressure and decreasing the efficiency of cooling IT equipment. Moving cable trays from under the false floor closer to the ceiling can improve the situation.
Natural and liquid cooling
An excellent alternative to specialized climate control systems is natural cooling, which can be utilized during cold seasons. Today, technology allows for switching to an economizer when the weather permits. According to a study by Battelle Laboratories, natural cooling reduces data centers' electricity costs by 13%.
There are two types of economizers: those that use only dry air and those that utilize additional irrigation when cooling is insufficient. Some systems can combine different types of economizers, forming multi-level cooling systems.
However, air cooling systems often prove ineffective due to the mixing of air streams or the inability to utilize the rejected excess heat. Additionally, installing such systems often incurs extra costs for air filters and ongoing monitoring.
Many experts believe that liquid cooling performs its task more effectively. A representative from the Danish vendor Asetek, which specializes in creating liquid cooling systems for servers, John Hamill, , stated that liquid is approximately 4,000 times more efficient in terms of heat storage and transfer than air. Moreover, during an experiment conducted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in collaboration with American Power Conversion and Silicon Valley Leadership Group, it was , that by using liquid cooling and supplying water from a cooling tower, electricity savings reached up to 50% in some cases.
Other technologies
Today, three areas of development will help make data center operations more efficient: the use of multi-core processors, integrated cooling systems, and chip-level cooling.
Computer manufacturers believe that multicore processors, by completing more tasks in a shorter period, will reduce server energy consumption by 40%. An example of effective integrated cooling is the CoolFrame solution from Egenera and Emerson Network Power. It removes the hot air exiting the servers, cools it, and then releases it back into the room, thereby reducing the load on the main system by 23%.
As for cooling chips, as it allows heat to be removed directly from the 'hot spots' of the server, such as central processing units, graphics processing units, and memory modules, into the surrounding air of the rack or outside the machine room.
Increasing energy efficiency has become a real trend today, which is not surprising given the consumption levels of data centers: 25-40% of all operating expenses are attributed to electricity bills. But the main problem lies in the fact that every kilowatt-hour consumed by IT equipment turns into heat, which is then removed using cooling equipment that requires a lot of energy. Therefore, in the coming years, reducing energy consumption in data centers will remain a relevant issue – new ways to enhance the energy efficiency of data centers will continue to emerge.
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Source: habr.com
