should data center operators look outside? by Peter Judge

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Apr 26 2010)

1. 

   Last week, I chaired a webinar with some data center experts. What came up surprised me. 
   
   

   The Efficiency In Data Center Design panel had a good brief: we were set to talk through the role of measurement in making more efficient data centers, discuss how they could be paid for, and wind up with a look at where to find expertise. And we had a good line-up: Pip Squire runs Ark Continuity's interesting data center in Wiltshire which will ultimately use a stone mine and former nuclear bunker for underground cooling, Michalis Grigoratos is a data center expert at engineering firm Halcrow, and Gary Thornton follows data centers at training company Cnet.
   

   
   

   Naturally enough, we looked at the controversy over apparent opposition between ASHRAE's green building standards and PUE (actually a storm in a teacup), and we considered alternative taxation methods to give users an incentive to go greener (CRC versus CCA, something about which I must find out more). 

   
   

   For me the most interesting point was when we looked at sources of good practice. I've been hearing about the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres for some time now, and have been expecting to hear of it gaining ground amongst users, but I now realise that was naive of me. 

   
   

   In fact, it appears that most people running data centers rely on their own knowledge, which basically amounts to doing things the way they have always been done. Pip Squire noted how many data centers still have huge backup power specifications, designed for the needs of older IT equipment which took a long while to fail over. Similarly, cooling systems are likely to be specified for lower temperatures than today's equipment need, missing the fact that manufacturers have become greener by making kit that can safely be run at warmer temperatures. 

   
   

   In all walks of life, codes of conduct always take a while to be brought into use, and are not always welcomed. All too often they are publicly welcomed and quietly ignored until they go away. 

   
   

   Gary Thornton argued strongly in favour of the EU Code - and we'd have to acknowledge that for Cnet a code like that, and related certification, is an opportunity to sell more training. But even as he spoke, we were running a vote among the audience, and the figure backing the EU code only crept up as high as 23 percent, and this was amongst an audience pre-selected by the fact that it was interested enough in the subject to sit through an hour's webinar on the subject. 

   
   

   I've never been a data center manager, and I'm guessing there are good reasons why they would mistrust codes imposed from outside (as they did with the ASHRAE regulations). but I'd be interested to know whether there are specific reasons to take a cool view on the EU code of conduct. 

   Bookmark or Share this article

Login to comment.

Related Articles