The era of cloud computing needs to reduce data center energy consumption

Reducing energy consumption in data centers does not necessarily require sacrificing the reliability and performance of hardware facilities. Replacing old hardware and upgrading the datacenter cooling system can greatly improve reliability and performance. You can also reduce energy costs by virtualizing and consolidating and considering outsourcing certain tasks to other facilities or clouds.

Virtualization improves data center operational efficiency

One of the most effective ways to improve energy efficiency is to use fewer servers to perform calculations, such as using http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13883.html "> Virtualization technology merges multiple applications into a single server and runs concurrently. The potential for server consolidation is staggering. The total resource share of a traditional physical server running a single enterprise application is about 5% to 15%, this means that the same server has the ability to host 10 virtual machines, even if the average per virtual machine uses 8% of the total server computing power, and the server retains a total of 20% of computing power after replacing 10 physical servers.

Server consolidation does not mean a one-size-fits-all consolidation, but rather a decision on how to integrate according to the workload, the technology used, and the characteristics of the support team. Enterprises that have just approached virtualization should start with a non-critical application, with limited virtualization consolidation, and then gradually increase the level of consolidation and the more significant workload of virtualization. Virtualization improves the importance of system management tools and practices because of the need to track, monitor, and control virtual machines.

Organizations can easily virtualize existing server clusters and then update the server system in an orderly fashion following the replacement cycle of subsequent technology. Server upgrades give it teams the opportunity to optimize their integration efforts and make virtual machines more evenly distributed between servers.

Energy Efficient Servers

The new server design can reduce the energy consumption of the data center while providing more powerful computing power. The new processor even contains more cores and caches. Some of the energy savings are achieved by making full use of lower-frequency processor performance rather than relying on high-performance processors. These enhancements include Hyper-threading, which basically allows one microprocessor to do two processors, and processor throttling can dynamically adjust processor clocks and voltages based on computational requirements. New servers with energy-efficient processors and efficient power supplies can again promote virtualization and consolidation, further reducing energy consumption.

Improved Datacenter Cooling System

How to maximize the potential of existing cooling infrastructure and introduce viable alternative cooling methods. Using the advantages of higher operating temperature, we explore the design of smaller room air-conditioning and other efficient cooling systems, and use the development of alternative refrigeration technology to achieve more savings. One way to get a better cooling efficiency is to actively use duct containment strategies, such as establishing a hot channel/cold channel. This method limits the cooling air flow only in the server and rack space rather than the entire room, so the room air-conditioning system does not need to run for too long to achieve the desired operating temperature.

However, more efficient cooling may cause damage to existing mechanical refrigeration systems. As cooling requirements decline, the engine room air-conditioning every operation cycle time will be shortened, the compressor frequently start and stop will drag down the huge building cooling system. Moving the cooling facility closer to IT equipment is a more efficient alternative to datacenter cooling. One option is to move the mechanical refrigeration facility from the roof of the building to the server area, using a smaller and more efficient line-air conditioner.

More and more enterprise data centers are using a variety of energy-saving devices to supplement mechanical refrigeration, or even completely eliminate mechanical refrigeration facilities. Air energy-saving devices allow external cold air to overheat exchangers, while water-cooled energy-saving facilities pump cool water or river flows through heat exchangers to remove heat from the data center. The data center in the extreme arid climate region uses the indirect evaporative cooling system to obtain a good cooling effect. This method only needs to use the fan to move the cooling air, completely eliminates the engine room air conditioning system's large energy consumption compressor.

Final decision

If your organization has taken all feasible steps to reduce energy consumption in the internal data center, the next step should be to outsource the workload to an efficient hosting center or cloud hosting platform for further energy savings.