Reducing energy costs for a greener data centre
Most large organisations throughout the world have a corporate social responsibility (CSR) statement. A major part of the statement is often a commitment to lower the environmental impact of the IT systems that the organisation is running. This is a real and growing challenge. The traditional “add another server” answer is now becoming not only cost prohibitive but also socially unacceptable. Organisations are under pressure from government and the wider society to do their bit for the environment. How can a growing business reduce it’s environmental costs though? As data centres become ever larger it seems that server sprawl is taking over many large IT departments.
Data centres have doubled their energy use in the past five years with an 18% increase in data centre energy costs projected.* This is bad news not only from an environmental perspective but also from a financial perspective for the organisation itself.
Server consolidation is becoming a necessity for many organisations that need to manage their growing data centres and make good on the promises in their CSR statement.
The Enterprise Linux Server (ELS) is one option. Built on the traditionally reliable hardware of the IBM System Z platform it provides unparalleled reliability and security. The IBM Enterprise Linux Server is able to consolidate hundreds of distributed UNIX servers onto a single physical unit.
Consolidating multiple server workloads into a single ELS environment can dramatically improve Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by cutting server room environmental costs and software licence fees as well as offering vastly improved workload management and productivity benefits.
Taking control of server sprawl and the growing costs of IT can have a dramatic effect on an organisations’ environmental impact. Energy costs can be reduced by up to 80%* with ELS. This is surely a compelling argument for infrastructure executives to consider when planning their next infrastructure review.
*Data from IBM