How To Run An Efficient Data Centre

At eWEEK Europe, it sometimes feels like we’re drowning in information; our aim is to make sense of it, and help you to use it. Nowhere is the information overload more obvious than in the ways to make your data centre more efficient – and that’s what we have chosen as the subject of our first practical How To Guide.

Efficiency means using less space and less electric power. And the key do that is to use new efficient hardware, and apply virtualisation. The benefits seem unarguable – and more benefits emerge every time we look – yet the percentage of the world’s servers that are virtualised is still quite low.

Most data centres have a mass of x86-based servers, which are run at a very low utilisation. Some are dedicated to a single application, with a massive overhead of storage and processor capacity. Server virtualisation allows data centre managers to consolidate these servers onto fewer machines, which saves them space, electrical power, and money.

New server processors are designed to use less electrical power overall – as well as demanding less power for each application they support, thanks to virtualisation. Virtualisation has become a much easier technology to apply, and electricity usage has become easier to control.

Yet, despite the fact that virtualisation is a no-brainer, and power management has become practical, why are these technologies not yet universal? According to Gartner, the penetration of globalisation in servers worldwide was around 12 percent in 2008, and it will rise to 20 percent in 2009.

In the early days, it was difficult to apply efficiency techniques to these servers, because of complexity, but now, processor manufacturers and server makers have embraced virtualisation and power-efficiency, so all new data centre systems are shipped ready to support virtualisation, and able to use less power.

In the global recession, businesses have to become more efficient. The data centre is a good place to start, because IT is also a tool to increase efficiency in the rest of the business. As well as helping reduce costs, lowering the power required by your data centre helps meet environmental targets too.

Our new Guide, How To Run An Efficient Data Centre contains the freshest information on the subject. It’s the first in a series of in-depth practical guides for IT staff and decision-makers in UK businesses.

Download it now, and assess your best response to the virtualisation wave.

eWEEK Europe Guide: How To Run An Efficient Data Centre