Data centres need relief

The evolution in technology has highlighted the thirst for power and storage that people and businesses require and the rise in data management needs has placed increasing energy costs into the spotlight for the data management sector.

With legislation and the green taxes putting pressure onto industries, it seems to be that data centres are feeling the full force of the price rises and taxation.

The downside of this rapid growth is that the demands on energy supply and the cost to these businesses becomes a substantial drain on the bottom line.

The elements that cause a concern for an ever growing data management sector is the modernisation of power thirsty equipment. This can be the first place to start for any data management company looking to perform better and improve their energy consumption.

Operational decisions at data centres include the review of power, rack space, CPU and cooling, but one of the other things that has to be considered is the decision making process for your energy supply. Especially, if as a business you include the energy supply as an all inclusive with the data storage packages you offer to customers.

As a business, it’s being able to get the right balance between investment in new technology; reviewing energy supply costs and seeing where you’ll save in the long term without impacting on income and growth targets.

Energy consultancies and management companies can help in this situation by analysing the energy use and working out energy contracts that suit a data management company’s operations. They can also assess the infrastructure of each site and make the necessary changes where needed.
Louis Fairfax, Managing Director of CUB (UK) Ltd, emphasised the point by discussing the reasoning behind why data management companies we have worked with, chose us: ‘One of the things that we noticed when working with data management companies is that when energy contracts have been signed, if they are stuck on a fixed contract, their business can be hindered from growth, because as more servers are commissioned the bigger the energy charges you’ll incur if you go over your contracted tolerance.

This is why we look at how each business consumes energy and work out the right strategy for their organisation before we look at finding the right energy contract for their organisation.’

Another issue that data management companies face are the government taxes on high energy users as part of the carbon reduction scheme posed on EU members. This means that green taxes have been a constant pressure on data management companies, which are run differently from most other industries.

For example, most other industries use energy and raw materials to produce a physical tangible object, where energy costs imposed in the production stages can be appointed accordingly and this is where data management organisations differ.

Data centres are heavy users of electricity and they don’t deliver anything physical; offering a service which can vary in price due to the energy markets being out of their control. Legislators are aware of the offering data centres bring to the service economy, but they haven’t taken into consideration that this service sector industry is a power hungry one, that cannot be pigeon holed so easily.

The legislators also neglect the point that data centres may also be reducing emissions elsewhere, with the likes of online conferencing, satellite navigation which can increase fuel efficiency thus reducing emissions, plus the reduction in postal costs and the need for a convoy of postal vehicles due to email and cloud storage. Also, building management systems or smart grid functions which create efficiency and easily manageable systems also further reinforce this provision.

All this has brought forward a term “cross-sectoral carbon transfers” that is used to describe the minimised overall carbon impact. This is due to the overall carbon emissions that data centres reduce in the long term.

Data centres can actually be beneficial to local economy, and even a global economy. Unfortunately, with the squeeze of carbon taxes, incentives, regulations to IT departments and data management centres puts an additional strain on the cost of running these businesses.

One of the ways that costs can be reviewed to help reduce energy usage is to look at the infrastructure and equipment used in these facilities; such as Real-Time reporting, Performance Management, Capacity Planning, Regular Monitoring and a regular review of the energy efficiency of the facility and equipment. All this should help with meeting EU regulations that are imposed on them.

Louis Fairfax believes that one solution to reduce the strain on data management companies is to put a strategy in place: ‘Data management companies can definitely look to combat this with energy management strategies; it helps to pinpoint the areas for improvement and shows that they are being proactive in making sure they are prepared for the future, and it can seriously save them in the long term.’

Many top people within the data management industry believe that these green taxes should not be levied on data management companies due to the fact that they help increase growth within the economy. Also, to effectively reduce their carbon footprints, these green taxes should be used to fund grants to subsidise the cost of upgrading to more energy efficient equipment.

Data management is an ever growing industry, with an ever growing energy demand. As learning how a business uses energy together with the need for better management of energy consumption becomes paramount, the requirement for an energy management becomes a necessity.

Energy Management will identify the areas for improvement, such as equipment and energy supply. It also monitors the long term effects and attitudes towards efficient use, with software and monthly reports – whether this is on the market prices of energy or the internal use of equipment.

Most energy consultancies have a vast knowledge of the energy industry, how contracts and legislation can influence a business and how energy management can help to reduce energy bills.

No one size fits all, but if you review and tailor your business needs by making the appropriate changes; you will see the benefits.