Information Age: News, analysis & insight for IT & business leaders

When it comes to data centres, energy efficiency and cost control are one and the same thing, as delegates at Information Age’s data centre strategy conference learned

In 2006 and 2007, popular concern for the environment combined with fears for future availability of electricity supply to make energy efficiency the chief concern for executives with responsibility for data centres.

Since then, economic concerns have somewhat eclipsed the green IT initiative. But the shift in mindset that took place in that period, towards thinking about corporate IT farms in terms of energy inputs and outputs, has persisted. And as Information Age’s recent Future of the Data Centre conference heard, it is proving invaluable as organisations strive to improve the cost effectiveness of their data centres.

Tim Anker, founder and director of data centre agency Collocation Exchange, explained to delegates that when assessing the capacity of a given data centre, describing it in terms of physical space is almost meaningless. “Commercially, these days, you need to think about power rather than space,” he said.

Seen through the lens of cost per kilowatt, Anker explained, data collocation services available in the UK vary wildly in price. “There’s a broad range, from £200 per kilowatt per month up to £600 or even £700 per month,” he explained. “There’s a clear cluster of new entrants at around the £300 [per kilowatt per month] range, while some of the existing operators are being more flexible with pricing.”

Unfortunately for buyers seeking collocation services in the capital, this price is only likely to increase. Anker estimates that London’s data centre capacity “is now about 90% occupied” and demand is still growing, he says. “There’s some very aggressive and staggering growth forecasts,” Anker explained, citing statistics from data centre consultancy BroadGroup that say demand in London will outstrip supply by 250% within two years.

One reason for this is the increasing willingness among public sector organisations to outsource data centre operations to collocation providers. “The public sector has been a big driver for data centres in the past year, taking up the slack from the corporate sector,” he explained.

Anker suggested that government IT spending policy will have a knock-on effect for all data centre buyers in future – if it drives even greater data centre outsourcing, the supply of available space will be under even greater pressure.

Energy measures

A more direct way in which the government influences data centre strategy is through legislation, specifically the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, which is designed to limit the carbon emissions of the country’s largest polluters.

Now that the scheme has been introduced (as of April 2010), inefficient data centres can land their operators in serious trouble. Those organisations that qualify for the scheme – based on the scale of their energy consumption and the way in which it is metered – face fines of up to £50,000 or even jail time for executives if they fail to meet emission reduction targets.

At the same time, the scheme could prove lucrative for those companies that take the opportunity to improve the efficiency of their data centres, as Andrew Jones of energy efficient IT consultancy ITM Communications explained.

Qualifying organisations will be made to disclose their energy consumption, and will be ranked in a league table. “The league table will be publicly available, so there’ll be no more ‘green washing’,” said Jones.

This means that on top of the fines, businesses that fail to improve their energy efficiency may well find it harder to sell their wares, Jones warned. “Certain organisations will say that they will not allow procurement from the bottom half of the table, so there’s a lot of pressure.”

Continued...