The thirst for power

With more than 500 participants attending the recent Green IT conference in London, it is clear that there is a growing desire to learn from the leaders in this nascent field, but anyone seeking short-cuts will have been disappointed.

Data centres are the somewhat unsung heroes of the internet revolution, facilitating the online content and services that are now embedded in modern society and business. In a world facing an impending energy crisis, however, are they also potential villains?

The image of massive rooms full of humming beige boxes has been familiar for many decades, though most 20th Century examples were installations serving only a single organisation, and in computing power terms the early ones now invite ‘gee whizz’ comparisons with a modern smartphone.

In the last decade the scale has changed exponentially. As the internet brought to life email, online gaming, shopping and multimedia content and made the physical location of data and software irrelevant to the user. So-called ‘cloud computing’ now delivers IT resources virtually from a globally distributed infrastructure.

Voracious consumption

All this adds up to many thousands of data centres, but all with two principal challenges: power and cooling. For example, Microsoft’s new $500m data centre in Chicago will require three electrical sub stations generating around 200 megawatts of power. Last year IT analyst firm IDC estimated that data centres in the US used more power than all the country’s televisions combined.

In response, companies such as IBM and HP are consolidating down to far fewer sites and servers to benefit from scale, while locations such as Siberia are being considered for improved cooling.

BT has been investigating ways of addressing the data centre challenge since 1996, when the company committed to reduce its UK carbon footprint by 60 per cent by 2006. With an annual requirement of around 0.7 per cent of the UK’s entire electricity consumption, any reductions bring financial and environmental benefits.

JP Rangaswami, managing director of Service Design at BT design, co-opened the Green IT conference with his to-the-point mantra of cutting through distractions and getting results.

He says: “For me ‘Green IT’ is not about global warming, or climate change, or biofuels - one does not want to get involved in the emotion that surrounds those issues. It all starts with an agenda of stewardship, which creates personal ownership. Most people tend to agree that being a conscientious steward of resources is a good thing.”

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