In the report, How Well Do You Know...Green IT?, the WSJ published some interesting tips on where IT should focus their energy saving efforts. After completing Phase II of construction in our offices, I learned too late of a NASA development now commercially applied. Then, in my Mac server adventures (more on this later) I learned that not all enterprise server farms are headless. Headless?E-Commerce and methods to replace or reduce paper consumption should be a line item in your energy reducing strategies according to the WWF. Then, according to the EPA, storage devices (of data) grew at an astonishing rate of 191% between 2000-2006, which gives rise to the question, what is it that you are storing and why? Data storage growth in the Cloud needs to address what will be stored, for how long and whether or not it is cost effective to even use Cloud storage.
Recently, I read about NASA's paint additive that creates a ceramic finish by painting surfaces. The ceramic finish forms a radiant heat barrier that reflects heat or cool air instead of allowing absorption (radiant transfer). The common product is Insuladd and is used in numerous applications. Now add this to your list "to paint" surfaces in your data centers and insulate the walls including interior walls using Branded Logic's Ultra Touch insulation. The old former practices of not insulating interior walls is/was ill conceived to save money since old school thought was to insulate exposed walls only. Keeping interior spaces uniformly cooled was a challenge that IBM helped Toyota figure out by analyzing and changing airflows.
Another resource is RealWinWin, a firm that specializes in helping enterprises getting a return, obtaining rebates and maximizing tax credits on energy initiatives. Businesses and homeowners alike struggle to find the returns. Energy and efficiency doesn't come without a price and making what sometimes appear to be "snake oil" decisions may reap benefits, but they aren't always immediately known or easily measurable. Just as slippery as snake oil is the ability to right-time the tax credits and any Alternative Energy (AE) or energy projects because government is still alive and well with red tape and plenty of paperwork. The incentives are better but there are hooks, and hoops to jump through.
In my Mac Mini Server project I learned from my buddies that some Windows based servers cannot operate Headless--without a display, keyboard and/or mouse--and it depends. My cigar box-sized server requires none of these. KVM switches are great tools to reduce extra gear, but KVMs still use energy.
Recently, I watched a presentation by the University of Maryland on where to save energy, and the one thing that still stands out as challenging for all enterprises is how to deliver energy solutions that remove the user/customer involvement from conscious decision making. Why? Simply examine the variables: time/timing/time-of-day, temperature/seasons/seasonal, use/usage, changes and the unknown. Seek consultants that can especially help navigate the maze of tax and rebate incentives, since these will improve the ROI. Be ready for the new round of electric rate increases because another shift is anticipated with electric vehicle adoption.
