Eco-Efficiency

Eco-Efficiency Overview

It seems that every business, organization and marketing effort is pointed in the direction of “green,” and companies of all colors are now stamping themselves with this label.  The truth is, “green” has yet to be standardized in definition or metrics across any industry, making it easy for fact and fiction to overlap.

The reality is that networking equipment powered by carbon-based energy is not, by definition, green.  With traffic demands on the network increasing in step with technological innovation and client needs, the amount of energy consumed in the form of power and cooling is also increasing.  So the idea (if only in the shape of a little green leaf) that a data center is “green,” is misleading and distracts from the industry’s efforts to develop more efficient solutions. 

Ultimately, the only truly green data center is one that is powered by renewable energy sources.  While not all data centers have the ability to rely on renewable energy, they do all have the ability to become more eco-efficient.

Eco-Efficiency:  Where Green Meets Network Realities

At Force10 Networks, we believe organizations should strive for eco-efficiency -- incorporating stringent energy-saving strategies with operational best practices.  At Force10, this means constantly re-examining the ways we can help customers build more efficient networks.  Force10 is addressing the need for eco-efficiency in the following three ways:

System-level: Force10 focuses on incorporating into its products advances in chips that consume less power as well as promote intelligent power management

Network-level: Force10 works with its ecosystem partners to automate network functions that power down unused resources

Design-level: Force10 helps customers design best practices into their data centers to reduce power and cooling requirements

Force10 is also involved in several eco-efficient projects with customers and dedicates resources to research ways to foster sustainability.

As a global leader in reliable networks, Force10 takes its environmental responsibility seriously.  To us, sustainability is more than an icon or marketing angle; it is an intrinsic part of our mission..

MYTH 1:  Power and cooling issues don’t impact the operation of my data center.

REALITY:  According to IDC, power and cooling issues lead to server or network downtime, increased operational costs, and in some cases, data center outages.  Additionally, power and cooling limitations constrain the deployment of new servers and applications.

MYTH 2:  Only a small percentage of my IT power budget is impacted by the network equipment I choose.

REALITY:  While it is true that network equipment typically consumes only 5-10 percent of the kilowatt hours in an average data center, the design you deploy can play a crucial role in the efficiency and power consumption of all other IT technology and equipment. Network utilization rates of 50-80 percent – or higher – should be your target. To achieve this without impacting performance, your network must be 100 percent non-blocking and congestion free.

MYTH 3:  Energy efficiency in my data center is a trade off between reducing power consumption and network capacity and availability.

REALITY:  By utilizing a combination of design techniques at the rack, network and room level, there is no need to trade capacity and availability for lower power usage.  Advances at the system level, from low voltage chips to more efficient memory and power supplies, also are aimed at balancing capacity demands with the need to reduce power consumption.

MYTH 4:  Virtualization is the first step I should take to reduce my power usage.

REALITY:  While virtualization can and will continue to play a vital role in helping customers improve data center power efficiency by reducing server growth, a more comprehensive plan of action is required to reduce energy consumption.

Such an approach includes planning for capacity and optimizing data center design to those needs, consolidating multiple data centers, refreshing aging systems with older, power consuming components and more efficient power management through network automation and intelligent system-level power controls.

MYTH 5:  “Greening” my IT department is not something I need to worry about now.

REALITY:  Even if you believe the eco-friendly movement will fade, that energy prices will stabilize or decline or that going green cannot help you, your department or your budget – you might want to reconsider.

It is more likely than not that your data computing needs will continue to increase and along with them your power demands. Also, as businesses of all sizes scale up, elbow room is going down. So environmental concerns aside, getting eco-efficient now will pay off in dollars and manageability in the future.

Cutting power and cooling requirements requires collaboration with a wide range of players including other IT vendors, facilities, end-users and government entities. As part of the larger green community, we actively participate in a number of these groups to help define, measure, and deploy power-conscious and eco-efficient data center solutions.

Force10 plays an active role in the IEEE, the leading professional association for the advancement of technology that is responsible for defining Ethernet-related standards.  The IEEE’s Energy Efficient Ethernet study group is seeking to create a standard that will reduce power consumption by optimizing port power based on utilization rates.

Force10 is a founding member of the Ethernet Alliance, whose mission is to promote industry awareness, acceptance and advancement of technology based on existing and emerging Ethernet standards, including optimization techniques to improve Ethernet energy efficiency.

      LBNL case study

In a study led by researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) for the EPA, it was found that data centers in the United States have the potential to save up to $4 billion in annual electricity costs through more energy efficient equipment and operations, and the broad implementation of best management practices.

LBNL is working with Congress and the EPA to help shape an Energy Star program for data centers.

Force10 and PG&E are working together to define networking metrics for data center operations and to bring facilities managers into Pacific Gas & Electric's Demand Response programs. PG&E offers financial incentives to customers who partake in High Tech Energy Efficiency Incentives, including IT projects and network designs that result in improved operational efficiency. Additionally, PG&E's demand response programs offer incentives for business owners who restrict energy use during periods of peak demand.

The EPA Energy Star program is working with various parties to identify ways in which energy efficiency can be measured, documented and implemented within data centers and related equipment. First, the EPA is developing objective measurements of server energy performance, on which future efficiency criteria will be based. The organization is expected to announce a data center rating system later this year.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Program (ITP), through Save Energy Now, is working with data centers nationwide to reduce energy consumption. The department is creating DC-Pro, a software tool that will be used to benchmark data center efficiency and enable IT managers to identify energy-saving opportunities within their own centers.

The Uptime Institute, Inc. is a respected provider of educational and consulting services on data center uptime optimization. The institute has published a number of influential white papers referencing best practices in energy efficiency.

SPECpower_ssj2008 is the first industry-standard SPEC (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation) benchmark that evaluates the power and performance characteristics of volume server class computers.  The benchmark provides a means to measure power (at the AC input) in conjunction with a performance metric and offers a way to standardize efficiency figures.