Data centers are notorious for being energy powerhouses. But there are ways to streamline your data center, resulting in lower costs and better organization. You can alter several factors that impact the efficiency of a data center to lower your carbon footprint and utility costs.
Site Location
The location of your data center is essential because it hinges on access to power and water. Why water? Many efficient data center cooling strategies use water to keep servers and other equipment cool instead of air conditioning. State and local taxes and any available clean energy methods, like solar or windmills, will also affect your energy costs.
Reduce Cooling Needs
All data centers need a stringent cooling strategy because of the heat that servers and other equipment create. You’ll spend most of your budget on air conditioning and other related cooling costs, but optimizing the space where you keep the equipment can help lower your utility costs in a few ways.
You can eliminate unused equipment, like zombie servers. They suck up power and create unnecessary heat. Moving some data onto a cloud and making your data center a hybrid cloud storage solution offers other benefits, such as continuity and tighter security.
Experiment With Temperatures
Does your data center need to be as cold as it is? Raising your thermostat by even two degrees could save or thousands in energy costs every year. Maintaining a cool temperature is vital, but you also have some wiggle room in how cool the room is.
Modular Design
In the same way that locating and eliminating zombie servers help with costs, you can optimize your space with a modular design. Modular design is a prefabricated data center module for upgrading infrastructure quickly. Some modular data centers have portions outfitted with the remaining space blocked from cooling and power until you need to grow.
Controlling utility costs and cooling strategy is one of the most important factors that impact the efficiency of a data center.
