Alex Rabbetts, Managing Director of Migrations Solutions answers questions on the EU Code of Conduct: Q: Is it detailed enough to affect energy use within the data center?
“The Code of Conduct undoubtedly has a key role to play in providing a common currency for measuring and comparing data centres’ power efficiency. Furthermore, the journey taken by those of us who have participated in the consultation around the drafting of the Code has definitely contributed to a greater awareness of the issues and helped put the ‘greening’ of the data centre on the agenda of every company that operates one.” “Given the complexity of the mandatory and voluntary controls that are in place in the data centre, it is understandable that companies are looking for a simple, clear and meaningful measure of the overall state of their data centre and some recommendations on what they can easily, and cost effectively do to make it better. The EU Code of Practice is a very welcome contributor to the understanding and measurement of power efficiency in the data centre.”
Q: What conditions within the code are most relevant to the market?
“It is difficult to select the most relevant condition, as so many aspects of the data centre, from the construction to power, cooling, protection, operation and policy, contribute to its energy output. The most important aspect however is the fact that the participant will have to monitor energy consumption on a monthly basis and report the information regularly (twice yearly), providing evidence of continuous improvement and a historical trace of seasonal variations.”
Q: What in the Best Practice Guide are the most relevant to the market?
See above
Q: Paolo Bertoldi said the commission is hoping companies to Participate and for others to endorsement it. What will you do?
“As part of our support for the United Kingdom's strategy for sustainable development, we do our utmost to help data centre operators to comply with environmental regulations. We help data centre owners and operators to improve their environment efficiency in every aspect of the data centre, which is crucial for compliance with the code. “In regards to getting companies to participate, there have been a lot of concerns voiced about the voluntary nature of the code. However, we shouldn’t forget that the Code has been developed in response to increasing alarm over the energy consumption of data centres and seasoned ‘EU watchers’ will note that if ‘voluntary’ doesn’t work, ‘mandatory’ often follows.”
Q: What benefits will working to the code bring to data center operators?
“If companies integrate the Code with other data points, regulations and best practice in order to identify the priority actions they can take to reduce power, save money and improve the environmental impact of their data centre.”
Q: How many data centers do you operate?
“We operate a number of Data Centres for our corporate clients with full Quality Assurance and operational procedure compliance. We also provide interim operational management and best practice procedures along with recruitment and training of IT operations staff. We also offer our clients strategic consultancy for data centre planning and project management for operations, migration, IT systems, security, disaster recovery and business continuity planning.”
Q: Are you constructing any new data centers at the moment? - If so when will they be completed? Will they operate to the EC COC?
“We strive to help data centre owners meet these guidelines, all of our customers will have the Code of Conduct discussed with them and we encourage them to go down this route. There is already plenty of data centre regulation out there, with undoubtedly more to come, it’s time for businesses to get serious about the environment.”
Franek Sodzawiczny, Development Director & Partner, 
Sentrum gives his views the EU Code of Conduct:
Q: Is the code detailed enough to affect energy use within the data centre?
Our experience is not. We still have the age old problem of under utilisation of the capacity in the server rack - and often 'over future proofing ' which creates over sized plant to support the space.
Q: What conditions within the code are most relevant to the market?
The 'best practice' VO9. This whole document provides the full list of identified best practices for data center operators.
Q: What in the Best Practice Guide are the most relevant to the market?
We feel at Sentrum that the 'forum' to report back into the data community will bring rapid progress to improve our performance and to bench mark still greater strides forward so we will bring an 'excellence value' to our industry. Those that aim high will be those that continue prosper and expand their business
Q: Will the costs of working to the code be the same across the whole of Europe?
We believe the cost in Europe would be the same.
Q: Paolo Bertoldi said the commission is hoping some companies will participate whilst others endorse it. What will Sentrum do?
We have registered with the EU and will be actively participate, we will also ensure all our professional consultants are also registered.
Q: What benefits will working to the code bring to data centre operators?
It will bring a uniform approach and more importantly it will demonstrate to the EU that we can self regulate and manage ourselves.
Q: How many data centres do you operate?
Sentrum own and operate 5 centers with a gross floor plate in excess of 1,000,000 square feet in the UK. With plans to build a new data center to the East of central London and have set plans to develop the 'Sentrum model' further afield.
Q: Are you constructing any new data centres at the moment? - If so when will they be completed? Will they operate to the EC COC?
We are indeed constructing new data cells within our data center facilities it is an ongoing development program which we will maintain.
Chris Smith, marketing director of On365 gives his views:
Q: Is the EU COC detailed enough to affect energy use within the data center?
A: The EU’s code of practice is a very good start. Since you can’t control what you can’t measure, most UK businesses users don’t have the data to know what power the various parts of their data centre consume. Even if they did, they don’t know how to evaluate it or compare it to others. Companies must look at the DCiE (Data Centre infrastructure Efficiency) in the EU code. This should then be extended to link to other business metrics that identify data centre usage, cost and efficiency and how they contribute to the organisation. Establishing a direct link to computing costs in cash and environmental cost terms is a powerful tool. The European Union Code of Conduct and Best Practice guideline for improving data centre efficiency advises the use of the DCiE metric as a starting point. Using a legacy data centre as an example: DCiE (Data Centre Infrastructure Efficiency) =
Total IT power
___________________
Total data centre input power.
In an example, the calculations would be
100kW = 0.2 or 20%
________________
500kW
As an example, the legacy data centre with 100kW of IT load has the following electricity bill:
· Data centre overall load 500kW
· IT load 100kW
· Waste 400kW
This waste is draining 24/7 x 365 days per annum.
Assuming typical costs per kW/hour are £0.12 and based on 5:1 operating ratio, the 400kW of losses equates to £420,480.00 per annum
4:1 - £315,360.00
3:1 - £210,240.00
2:1 – £105,120.00
The cost of the IT load needs to be added to this at £105,120.00. With a £210,240.00 variance between the best and worst case examples shown here, making data centres more efficient is clearly a priority.
Q: What in the Best Practice Guide are the most relevant to the market?
The EU code may be a voluntary but the potential cost savings are striking. A legacy data centre may consume four or even five times the electricity consumed by the servers/data equipment itself. Analyst research indicates that over a data centre’s lifetime, data centre operations’ electricity cost could exceed the cost of the IT hardware within it.
This is because the power that comes into a data centre goes down two routes:
1. power that ends up at the server input - UPS, power distribution, cabling, static switches, transformers etc .
2. support services - lighting, air conditioning, humidifiers, power distribution, cabling, static switches, transformers, fire systems, security systems, generators etc
Both categories have their own losses and virtually all the power into a data centre generates heat. These losses can be exaggerated by over sized installations, dual power paths with 2N (no single point of failure in the data centre equipment) or N+1 (at least one independent backup component redundancy) or extremely inefficient cooling installations.
Example: A recent example at a large enterprise; the efficiency of an old UPS rated at 150kW. It is running a load of 32.1kW and draws 51.15kW from the mains. It has losses of 19kW or close to 2/3rd’s of the IT load. At £0.12 per kW/hr this is costing £19,973.00 per annum. This does not account for the running costs of the support cooling to deal with the 19kW worth of heat generated. A new UPS unit would cost £2,100.00 to operate and would pay for itself in less than 18 months. It would also offer the user N+1 redundancy. As can be seen from these examples, losses or inefficiency occur 24 hours a day, 365 days per year and soon add up.
Q: Paolo Bertoldi said the commission is hoping companies to participate and for others to endorsement it. What will you do?
As a specialist in physical infrastructure management, on365 now provides an overview of the data centre’s efficiency and how costs and energy demands can be cut through short and longer term changes. The service comprises a range of operational checks as required looking at energy demand, a basic audit of data centre operations, operational efficieny testing and an assessment of the centre’s cooling and ventilation infrastructure. This service draws on our expertise and will help show the vital adjustments that government and business must make to save money and reduce carbon emissions while demonstrating those efficiencies to their chief executive or the board.
Q: What benefits will working to the code bring to data center operators?
Another real life example seen by on365. An organisation was losing £17,000 in energy costs each year on a poorly-specified uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) back up unit, which caused excessive power demand on the data centre’s utility supply, equivalent to almost two thirds of the company’s main IT system’s power consumption. This was also leading to excessive data centre cooling costs for the firm. After system assessment, the new UPS was fitted, delivering a new and safer UPS system with a potential pay-back time of 17 months – and greener IT operations in the future.
What conditions within the code are most relevant to the market?
1. That it is voluntary.
2. Data Centre’s are designed to allow regular and periodic energy monitoring.
3. The take up of the DCiE metric.
What in the Best Practice Guide are the most relevant to the market?
2.3 Resislience Levels
3.1 Extended operating temperature range
3.2 Eliminate traditional 2N hardware clusters
3.3 Virtulisation and consolidation
4.1 Design contained hot air
4.2 Modular installation
4.3 Increase air inlet temperatures and decrease humidification
4.4 Free cooling
4.5 Variable speed fans
5.1 High efficiency UPS
7.2 Geographic location
8 Energy Monitoring
Q: Will the costs of working to the code be the same across the whole of Europe?
No - Climates can restrict the use of free cooling.
Q: How many data centers do you operate?
Operate 1 – Built 100’s
Q: Are you constructing any new data centers at the moment? Will they operate to the EC COC?
Yes - partly.
Chris Smith is marketing director of on365, a specialist in the planning, installing=, mangaement and optimisation of physical IT infrastructure and utility services.
Next Time: Sentrum gives its views on the COC.
To download Version 1.0 of the code go here (PDF)
