How private cloud improves data center energy efficiency

As more and more businesses implement data center virtualization, Jenny Williams wants to know if getting into a private cloud really means higher energy efficiency. The end of 2012 will reach a tipping point for the private cloud. According to Gartner's vice president and researcher Nier McDonnell, more than half of the workload in the data center has been virtualized, and the computing power of the private cloud will reduce data center costs and increase energy efficiency in the data center.

However, TechTarget's 2011 Data Center survey found that 57% of British and European users did not use or would not consider using private cloud computing for the next 12 months.

There are so many private cloud infrastructure offerings on the market: from VMware vsphere to Microsoft Hyperv, System Center, and Dell's latest product data center private cloud Vstart 200. Has the high efficiency of private cloud data centers reached a turning point in an industry, or are these just market hype?

Virtualization of Private Cloud

The use of virtualization in data centers significantly reduces energy consumption. Palmer College in Essex has reduced more than 20 IBM servers to just 3 by deploying servers to virtualize and consolidate data center projects, according to search virtual Datacenter, a computer weekly report.

The data center now uses VMware's vsphere 4.1 servers, eliminates disaster recovery (DR), and server replacement costs, saving 19% of the capital budget. Saved 19% of its capital budget.

"We're saving about 80% of our power before we use server virtualization." "Palmer College IT manager Dan Byne said.

Gartner analysts believe that the private cloud platform will further enhance the energy efficiency of server and storage virtualization. Private cloud platforms allow enterprises to use enterprise network firewalls internally to protect data.

"Your next data center will be a lot smaller than you think," says David Capcio, a Gartner analyst, who adds that private cloud and resource pools increase the vertical expansion of data centers while increasing the percentage of productivity per kilowatt.

Cappuccio predicts that by 2018, data center space usage will account for only 40% of today's usage, mainly for core business services. EMC Chief information officer and Chief Operating officer Sanjay Mirchandani that deploying a private cloud environment can drive energy efficiency. 2010, EMC began migrating data from 47 old CLARiiON storage Array systems to 11 newer, more environmentally-friendly CLARiiON storage array systems. The migration process took two years to avoid application disruption. If you use a private cloud, it will take only a few weeks to get a greener online system, Mirchandani said.

"As you evolve from old physical data centers to private cloud environments, your data centers will be progressively integrated into green efficiency, with increased power efficiency, cooling, floor space recycling, storage, servers, and networking." "he said.

Private cloud efficiency

The Greek spirit board in London chose a private cloud platform data center to reduce costs and power consumption.

After virtualization of its 180 server infrastructure in two locations, the committee deployed a private cloud that lowered the server to only 5 units. The Commission then reduced carbon emissions by up to 171 tonnes.

Roger Bearpark, head of information and communications technology at the Hebrew district, said: "There is a 80% reduction in power usage in the region." The integrated server environment lowers the energy cost of about 94000 pounds a year. ”

Bearpark said the private cloud also enabled the Committee to prepare for the use of a public cloud computing platform, as they used Google's business applications.

Limitations of the private cloud

But not all experts are keen on the green benefits of private clouds. Vonavogues, Amazon's chief technology officer, said: "The research report by the normal Run Time Society (Uptime Cato) indicates that most data centers have a power efficiency of 2. This means that the power to pass to the server per watt is a waste of overhead. ”

As a result, businesses must be super effective at reducing energy costs and using private clouds to store data and applications. Gartner advises companies to use as much of the virtualization storage efficiency technology as possible, such as data de-duplication, purchase servers to maximize space and power consumption, if possible.

In addition, Accenture claims to be able to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by up to 30% in a multi-tenant environment that uses a public cloud compared to running its own infrastructure using Microsoft's enterprise applications.

Using the public cloud

Vendors of digital signage such as signagelive.com use infrastructure, the service (IaaS) of the public cloud service provider Rackspace hosted, running its open protocol stack cloud infrastructure platform.

Signagelive. COM chief executive Jessen Kremins said the company had previously had a private cloud infrastructure dedicated to duplicating machines located in the UK's data center. The infrastructure now features six times times the functionality of its original device and costs only half the cost, as well as the need to activate and extend the server, reducing costs and high availability.

such as Signagelive. Companies such as COM also find that the Pay-as-you-go and self-service payment models encouraged by IaaS can significantly reduce waste.

However, some experts believe that the overall environmental benefits of cloud-based infrastructure are ultimately limited by cloud providers.

While companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon have incorporated renewable energy into their cloud strategy, Greenpeace International IT analyst Gari Cook that these cloud services are not environmentally friendly and renewable.

"The rapid expansion of the global telephony infrastructure and data centers, cloud technology has driven large-scale energy demand, most of them from renewable sources such as coal and diesel." "he said.

In the TechTarget webcast of the data center, which uses private cloud, the executive director of the Data Center Alliance, Simon Cambellwite, says the data center has changed dramatically over the past 5-10 years.

From running servers to virtual environments, dedicated servers, and cloud environments, he says, many companies are still afraid to adopt a public cloud.

The public cloud environment provides greater energy efficiency than running a private cloud in an indoor environment, and private clouds are a good choice for businesses that focus on data security and compliance issues, helping them reduce costs and power consumption and provide efficient operations.

(Responsible editor: Schpeppen)