Diane M. Bryant, Chief Information Officer at Intel Corporation, and Olaf Heyden, member of the board of management and Head of ICT Operations at T-Systems.
The companies were able to reduce their power usage effectiveness (PUE) from 1.9 to less than 1.4 at their test data center in Munich. This value shows how much of the energy used is actually converted into computing performance. Since not only the processors but also the server cooling system, for example, use energy, this value has been at 1.9 on average.
Green is the way to go
Since September 2009, both companies have been doing research at DataCenter 2020, which was especially designed for this purpose. Intel and T-Systems experts have experimented with various scenarios to reduce the PUE value. For example, the companies found the point which creates a perfect balance between cooling energy and processor performance. The result showed that data center cooling did not need to be as high as was often assumed. The experts also improved the data center infrastructure by closing open gaps between servers. This way they were able to optimize air flow in server rooms.
This showed that energy consumption at data centers could be reduced partially with simple measures. And this is not only better for corporate expenses but also for the environment. If you are interested, you can access the complete results via the link to DataCenter 2020 in the right-hand column on this page.
Tags: data center, energy efficient, Energy-efficiency, GreenICT, GreenIT, Intel, PUE, sustainability, test system
