March 2013

Gautham Gnanajothi, Industry Analyst - Energy & Power Systems

“50 Years of Growth, Innovation & Leadership”

Energy Efficiency in Data Centres – An Outlook

Energy Efficiency in Data Centres – An OutlookMarket Insight

© 2013 Frost & Sullivan Page 2

The data centre market is growing at an extremely high rate. The boom in this market can

be attributed to the ever-increasing need for data transfer and storage. The world’s IT needs

are increasing at an alarming rate, which has contributed to the increase in the number of

data centres across the globe. With the constant growth of the data centre market, it has

become crucial to take into account the energy usage. Energy efficiency in data centres has

become one of the most widely discussed topics in recent times and it rightfully deserves that

status. There are two sides to this subject. One is the financial aspect, and the other is the

environmental aspect. Energy cost is one of the main components of the overall data centre

operation cost, which is a key element in the total cost of ownership (TCO). Data centre

managers are under constant pressure to lower the TCO. In an existing data centre, the most

effective method to reduce the TCO is to employ energy-efficient solutions in the key areas

of power and cooling. The following chart shows the energy consumption in data centres.

Figure 1: Energy Consumption in Data Centres (2010)

Data centres are classified as mission-critical facilities and any down time will result in a

significant financial loss. In order to ensure highest availability, data centre managers employ

high-powered UPS systems. These UPS systems consume about 7 per cent of the total energy.

It is critical to make sure the UPS systems are highly energy efficient. There are a lot of

energy-efficient UPS systems in the market; modular UPS systems are one of the upcoming

products that highly support energy efficiency and also address the data centre floor space

issue. Cooling and HVAC account for half of the energy consumption in data centres.

Innovative cooling solutions like fresh air free cooling will tend to lower energy costs. As IT

equipment and servers are getting bigger and more complicated, the need for cooling has

escalated. In this situation, the only solution to lower energy costs is to employ energy-

efficient cooling solutions. Innovative cooling solutions should ideally demonstrate the lowest

energy use of any system.

UPS7.0%

Cooling andHVAC50.0%

Distribution and Lighting 3.0%

Source: Frost & Sullivan analysis

IT Equipment40.0%

This should include adiabatic-assisted, air-cooled system. As opposed to the traditional

systems, it should use significantly less water. This could prove to be a boon for the data

centre market by displaying a new class of efficiency. By using the computational fluid

dynamics (CFD) modeling technique, new data centres can be built with effective cooling

solutions.

“Green” issues have been the other aspect of energy efficiency. Many companies publicise

themselves as a green company in order to increase their profile status in the market and to

comply with the ever-tightening regulations. Data centre operators use two important

metrics to project themselves as a green company. One is Power Usage Efficiency (PUE),

which calculates the effectiveness of the data centre in using the input power; in other

words, it is the ratio of total power available to total power used by the data centre. The

smaller PUE value indicates higher efficiency. The second metric is Data Centre infrastructure

Efficiency (DCiE); this is the inverse of PUE, which denotes the ratio of total power used to

total power available. Both PUE and DCiE should be close to 1 in order to be energy

efficient.

The IT equipment and the associated increase in the IT load is the root cause of the high

energy consumption. The strategy to implement energy efficiency in data centres should

begin with the reduction of IT load; this will directly result in lower power and cooling

requirements. There are many ways to reduce the IT load without having to interrupt the

data processing. Some of the effective methods are:

• Server virtualisation and server consolidation

• Decommissioning servers that are not in use

• Powering down idle servers

• Replacing inefficient servers

• Employing power management

The most sought-after technique among the above for reducing the IT load is server

virtualisation and consolidation. The method of running multiple independent virtual

operating systems on a single physical computer is called server virtualisation. It involves

using a software application to divide one physical server into multiple isolated virtual

environments by the server administrator. Each virtual server is capable of running its own

operating system (OS) and acts like a unique physical device.

In a nutshell, it helps companies do more work with fewer machines. By 2020, server

virtualisation will have become a default usage system, coupled with on-going innovations in

the same field. It is not just about the consolidation and cost savings and energy efficiency; it

also provides the agility and flexibility for the service delivery in the data centres. The best-

practice management of deployment and maximising management efficiency over multiple

heterogeneous server virtualisation environments will be the key issue in the future.

Energy Efficiency in Data Centres – An OutlookMarket Insight

© 2013 Frost & Sullivan Page 3

When it comes to improving the energy efficiency of a data centre, the operator must know

what is the current status of energy consumption. This can be ascertained by the PUE ratio.

For instance, if the current PUE ratio is 1.3, the operator should take all efforts to bring it

close to 1. This would involve making certain infrastructure investments in order to update

the power and cooling systems. This would result in a lowered TCO and getting closer to

being a green company. It is crucial for the data centre operators to perform a detailed

analysis on energy efficiency and identify best practices for system optimisation, and

implement them in an effective manner.

Energy Efficiency in Data Centres – An OutlookMarket Insight

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