IBM White Paper Sample

Beyond green initiatives such as reducing carbon footprint and environmentally friendly asset disposal, managing energy consumption are a major factor in achieving a “green” data center. In fact, Gartner Group reports that “green IT” will be the top strategic technology in 2008.

One major obstacle to efficient energy consumption, however, is the common practice of separating IT and facilities information. Traditionally there has been little aggregation of facilities energy information with IT equipment energy information. Yet facilities account for more than half of the energy consumption in a typical data center. With cooling equipment requiring a large amount of electrical power and comprising a large amount of the total energy usage, any improvement in airflow management or power savings from IT equipment (for example, less heat generated) can have additional benefits by reducing the power required for cooling. Components such as humidifiers, UPS units and lighting also offer opportunities for energy management and optimization of the data center.

Breaking down the traditional walls between IT and facilities can provide a critical enabler for managing the green data center. With the ability to aggregate IT and facilities information, organizations can readily provide answers to the questions that enable them to move toward a green data center