Datacentres are computational workhorses which can greedily gobble up to 100 times more power per square foot than your average office, according to Accenture.
On Friday, Accenture will launch the beta of its Green Datacentre Calculator, aimed at helping companies tame energy-hungry datacentres, potentially bringing huge cost savings and environmental benefits.
The service will produce a tailored plan of the best way to improve environmental efficiency in datacentres, together with cost-reduction predictions, based on case studies of previous company savings.
With a typical datacentre consuming a watt in cooling for each watt used in computation, Accenture estimates companies could recoup the money from green-calculator initiatives within a year.
Companies enter into the calculator information including the number and size of their datacentres, their energy provider, the cooling and cleaning set-up, datacentre utilisation figures and details of the server storage network.
Using this, the calculator recommends the best way to achieve savings, ranging from consolidating equipment -- for example, by buying more efficient servers, lighting and cooling systems -- to process optimisation -- for example, by using energy-efficient services, virtualisation and minimising redundancies.
Trends can be built into the calculation such as the price of electricity, capacity costs and future carbon costs.
Tangible metrics on server performance can help cut through some of the greenwash around sustainable IT, but they can prove difficult to acquire
Accenture Technology Labs' Teresa Tung said: "A datacentre typically uses up to 10 to 15 times more power per square foot than your average office block, and can use up to 100 times more per square foot if it is poorly configured."
"In London, commercial power is being capped until the Olympic Games. This is a really big business problem because companies are not able to meet demand in the same way," said Tung.
Tung added: "We can spell out a lot of different scenarios using mathematical models to find out the best solution for datacentres, based on company experience."
The total cost of carbon offsetting can also be included in the calculation.
About 20 companies are currently included in the calculator's green-savings database, but the company hopes to expand this number before the full service goes live in about three months.
As a facilities manager who has designed and built over 4000 sqm of data centres in australia - this is just normal practice for me.
its really not that hard - all the data on power and heat for all equipment is listed by manufacturers - servers, pc's, air units, generators, switches, routers etc etc etc
your building management system will provide data on actual cooling activities when it gets running - if it doesn't you need to get these "options" installed.
you know what you pay for power and how much you consume.
sure it takes time to create the model that suits your envieronment (a service I am sure that Accenture will be happy to charge you for) but it is well worth the trouble initially and keeping it up to date. These are just fundamental responsibilities of the FM role.
The FM is is a key person in any infrastructure team - providing advice on the effects of consolidation activities etc - and gaining information on new changes so they can make plans for more capacity if needed.
The role of the FM is far more than cooling and power. They are a key participant in anything to do withow a facility runs - and not just the data centre - all facilities - offices, meeting rooms, car parks, toilets - all have areas where optimisation of utility services can reduce the green footprint and return real savings to the company.
Of course - you could always get Accenture to do it for you.... I am sure it would not be more expensive than the cost of a good FM.