In an era of corporate responsibility, the majority of businesses that make use of data center services are looking for ways to become more sustainable but aren’t sure how to do it. So operators that provide greener data center services have a differentiator on their hands.
Particularly considering the potential savings: "Energy use is becoming the largest single cost in operating data centers – with $2 billion per year wasted nationally due to inefficiencies," explained Vijay Lund, vice president for development and manufacturing operations in IBM's Systems and Technology Group.
Accordingly, IBM and companies like Google Inc. are stepping up to share research and best practices as to how to build a better, eco-friendly data center, in a “rising tide will lift all boats” kind of strategy.
An End User Thirst for Green – and a Confusion
IBM found in its second annual global corporate social responsibility survey that most enterprises would like to go green, for a number of reasons, including efficiency, lower costs, reduction of environmental impact and improvements in reputation with “key stakeholders.” However, a number of obstacles stand in the way, including the ability to collect and analyze the right information.
For instance, only 19 percent of businesses surveyed are collecting data on CO2 emissions weekly or more frequently. The rest are collecting it no more than monthly, and most only quarterly – ample perhaps for meeting government or stakeholder demands for information, but not nearly enough to make systemic changes that would reduce environmental impact. This is a consistent issue – businesses not knowing what information to consider, and from whom. As an example, information on data center usage is often overlooked.
U.S. data centers, if taken as an industry to themselves, are close to cracking the top five when it comes to energy use, right up there with manufacturing and the health care industry. Electricity alone can account for up to 20 percent of their operating cost. According to IBM, data centers consume annually more than 62 billion kilowatt hours of electricity – equivalent to the amount used by approximately 5.8 million U.S. households – for a total cost of about $4.5 billion. If current trends continue, that usage could double by 2011.
