ISS Technology Update, Volume 7 Number 5 - Newsletter

ISS Technology Update Volume 7, Number 5

Additional resources

For additional information on the topics discussed in this article, visit:

Resource URL

Why Choose HP Virtual Connect

Enterprise Manager?

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportMa

nual/c01373909/c01373909.pdf

NPIV and Fibre Channel

interconnect options for HP

BladeSystem c Class white paper

http://h71028.www7.hp.com/ERC/downloads/4AA1-

2234ENW.pdf

What is NPIV? Web page

http://h71028.www7.hp.com/eNewsletter/cache/584543-

0-0-224-121.html

Delivering energy-efficient solutions for the IT power and cooling chain

According to DOE power consumption estimates, U.S. data centers consumed 61 billion kilowatt-hours in 2006. This represents

only 1.5 percent of the total U.S. power consumption. However, this power use is nearly doubling every year due the

increasing number of new and planned data centers.

Impending environmental regulation is creating a sense of urgency among businesses to improve overall efficiency of existing

and planned data centers before legislative action is taken to curb energy consumption.

One of the greatest challenges for HP is also one of its greatest opportunities—helping customers adopt next-generation, high-

density platforms in aging and/or crowded data centers while trying to improve the overall energy efficiency of these facilities.

Businesses are beginning to buy energy-efficient server and storage platforms; however, the best way for them to improve

overall data center efficiency is to change their day-to-day operating behavior. For example, a few years ago, the paradigm

shift from centralized computing to distributed computing infrastructures benefited businesses as well as the entire server

industry. However, this shift drove a great deal of processor “underutilization” resulting in considerable energy inefficiency.

Today, with average processor utilization hovering around 15 percent, virtualization is the most effective strategy to reduce

data center energy use. It can save up to 70 percent of the energy required to power servers. Storage consolidation—spindle

reduction—is also key to reducing energy use. If businesses change their operating behaviors to use these strategies, they can

achieve their business goals with fewer machines while improving their facilitie’s overall energy efficiency. These behavioral

changes (Figure 2-1) are among a list of other steps that can be taken from the “chip to the chiller” to reduce energy use.