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CA Data Center Automation Blog
Saturday, May 17, 2008 - Posts
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Data Center Automation and Green IT - Part 1
Given all the attention and interest behind "Green IT", I'm sure this will be first of many Blogs I will write on this subject. I've held off on writing about Green IT until now, simply because I needed time to consume and digest where Green IT initiatives best fit into a data center automation initiative. The driving forces behind Green IT are pretty easy to understand, data center and the IT industry as a whole are recognizing the impact of energy consumption, or the overall "carbon footprint" on the environment. This realization has led the IT sector to search for "green" solutions. Quite a few evangelists and vendors alike have jumped onto the Green IT bandwagon and therefore have created a lot of attention to the subject. Many data center automation initiatives already go hand-in-hand with developing and/or delivering green solutions. Take for example the rate of server consolidation and virtualization, a recent CA sponsored global survey on virtualization indicates that a large majority of US respondents (68%) have adopted a virtualization strategy in order to consolidate servers. The drive to consolidate promises to reduce physical equipment overhead, power consumption and management complexity.
Server utilization, more specifically "under utilization", also plays a big role in reducing data center power consumption. Having the ability to run servers at more optimal utilization levels, i.e. 40%-60%, as compared to industry averages of <10%. This means taking advantage of available server capacity and "automatically" provisioning additional capacity when needed. Those servers that are not required to be online to meet demand at the time, are either powered down into "cold standby" mode, or in "hot standby" ready to accept demand at a moments notice. The IT industry is HOT on Green IT and it only makes good business sense. Reduced power consumption and being a good "corporate citizen" is both fiscally and environmentally responsible and should be part of our civic duty.
As you can see, policy driven automation and virtualization play a key role in meeting Green IT objectives and should be considered as part of any Green IT initiative within the data center. In future Blogs I plan on exploring other aspects of achieving Green IT goals, such as some of the underlying risks in the goal to become Green.
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