Big Savings
Professional energy efficiency benchmarks pay for themselves many times over. CIO and IT managers can save both hard and soft dollars fast. Data Centers containing a large number of out-dated and under-utilized servers are difficult to manage and expensive to maintain. Reducing server count and consolidating projects can help you gain greater efficiency. Fewer systems lowers data center space, power, and cooling requirements and reduces administrative tasks. Consolidating applications and servers can also reduce software licensing, support, and maintenance fees. As a result, companies can achieve significant capital and operating cost reductions. Moving software running on older hardware and operating systems onto new, more powerful platforms often provides the side benefit of improving application performance.
What we offer continued
Legacy IT equipment is in need of a refresh as new and more efficient, feature rich and scalable products become available from vendors.
Electricity bills for Data Centers are over 20% of the typical enterprise. Utility companies, prompted by the US Department of Energy (DOE) are providing cash rebates per kWhr of electricity saved to thrifty customers. Nationally over $500 Million is available for data center rebates. In California over $100M is available from the top utility companies.
While many government and private sector firms employ large numbers of IT professionals to maintain networks few are qualified to perform comprehensive energy benchmarks and have the time or motivation to seek and secure energy rebates from their utility company. In addition, utility company promotion of business energy savings for implementation of energy efficient data centers is not widely known nor practiced and the process seems daunting to many. However, every utility company account executive has been given a quota to reduce energy usage of their customer base. Focus is on reduction of peak load.
Other government agencies have also taken steps to reduce the size and cost of data centers and either consolidate where applicable and or move to cloud computing solutions and applications. The president on June 10, 2010 issued an order for all US government agencies to combine or reduce data center costs by $3 billion by 2011 and to have a consolidation plan in place to consolidate data centers and other properties by 2015. Information Week reported President Obama has ordered federal agencies to sell off data centers and other unnecessary properties to facilitate a broad cost-saving measure. In a memo issued by the White House and posted online, the administration put a moratorium on agencies opening any new data centers.
Moreover, agencies must examine the properties they already have and develop plans to consolidate them and reduce their number by 2015. “To eliminate wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars, save energy and water, and further reduce greenhouse gas pollution, I hereby direct executive departments and agencies (agencies) to accelerate efforts to identify and eliminate excess properties,” the president said in the memo. “Agencies shall also take immediate steps to make better use of remaining real property assets as measured by utilization and occupancy rates, annual operating cost, energy efficiency, and sustainability.” The memo points out that for decades, the federal government has managed more real estate than it needs. The administration wants data center consolidation efforts to be part of its overall strategy to eliminate waste on many levels.
Agencies have until Aug. 3, 2010 to submit their plans for how they will reduce the number of data centers in the next five years to the Office of Management and Budget, according to the memo. The administration said that efforts agencies make to eliminate unnecessary data centers and other properties should produce at least $3 billion in cost savings by the end of fiscal year 2012. When coupled with efforts by the Department of Defense to close and consolidate military bases, savings accrued by closing data centers and other properties should reach $9.8 billion by 2012, according to the memo. The administration expects $5 billion of that to be the direct result of reduced operating and maintenance from disposals or other consolidation efforts, it said.
