Want Your Business To Help The Environment? 3 Ways To Green Up Your Data Center
A data center is a facility that is used to house network servers and other components, such as storage systems and telecommunications. It includes backup servers, power supplies, and environmental controls, such as fire suppression and air conditioning, along with security devices. If your company has a data center and you want to help the environment, below is some information about how you can do this.
Know Your Energy Usage
The first thing you need to determine is the current energy usage of your data center. You may be using too many power supplies. Your servers could have too much storage, memory and CPU power than you really need. Other things take up power that you may not realize, such as network interfaces, memory, and disks. You may have more servers than you really need. When you purchase new hardware for your data center, make sure you know how much energy it uses.
If your data center equipment is not running correctly, it may be using more power. This is why it is important that you hire a company to perform regular data center hardware maintenance for you. This company can likely help you determine the energy usage of your equipment also.
One good way to know how much energy your data center uses is by using Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
Monitor the Environment
You need to monitor the temperature and humidity of the environment in your data center. Both of these things impact energy usage. Energy is wasted when your data center is being simultaneously dehumidified and humidified, or if your cooling system is not running optimally. You can use an environmental monitor system, which can warn you about these things via email, text, or phone. You can then make the needed adjustments immediately to maintain the energy efficiency. This can also help prevent performance problems, as servers and other equipment need to stay at an optimal temperature to run efficiently.
Move to the Cloud
Moving your data center to the cloud is a great way to go green. You will use no energy as you will not use servers in your data center, but instead your servers will be in the cloud. If you plan to do this, you need to make sure you do it correctly to ensure everything goes smoothly for you. Hiring a service to move your data center to the cloud for you is beneficial.
Following these tips is not only good for the environment, but you will also save money on your energy bills.
