Comments for Energy Star for Data Centers Launching in June at http://www.ecogeek.org , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://www.ecogeek.org Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:20:53 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.ecogeek.org/computing-and-gadgets/3065-energy-star-for-data-centers-launches-in-june#comment-35975 Carl: I think you're off a bit on what your average data center does. When you say that data centers sell / rent servers your referring to a web hosting company, which is only a small portion of the data center footprint out there. There are two distinct data center operations: Those run by private companies for use by that company and data centers that lease out space to various occupants. For a data center that leases space the main concern is power and cooling efficiency, which vary greatly. There have been some pretty amazing advances in cooling methods over the last few years that have greatly reduced cooling costs. For private data centers you're looking at the big picture since that company is responsible not only for the power / cooling in the data center, but also all systems. It's true that it doesn't matter how efficient a server is within its class if that server is underutilized. An under utilized server is kind of like commuting to work in a big rig every day, and many companies do just that with their servers. The push for more efficiency within the data center is why there has been such a big push for virtualization in the last 5 years. Just this week I virtualized 6 servers that used ~600 watts each onto a single system using ~500 watts. We achieved a 3100 watt savings not including cooling and reduced the total space necessary to house our systems. Best of all there's still capacity to virtualize more systems onto this single system. Virtualization is the real efficiency winner in the datacenter, and every major company out there is making the leap. - Tim Smith Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:38:21 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/computing-and-gadgets/3065-energy-star-for-data-centers-launches-in-june#comment-35967 We all know that you can make choices about what to buy based on Energy Star ratings when it comes to appliances, lights, etc. But I guess the big question here is: does this translate into consumers having any choice in using more energy-efficient data centers over less efficient ones? Will Google, for example, advertise their rating? - Elemental LED staff Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:52:40 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/computing-and-gadgets/3065-energy-star-for-data-centers-launches-in-june#comment-35966 Just labeling the PUE would be a good thing. But so what if 75% instead of 50% of power goes to feed a 200W computer, when a 20W low-power computer would work just fine. It's like having a really efficient water supply system feeding a leaky toilet. Data centers sell (lease) computers, and try to get people to buy machines with big numbers (high power), and don't push less power hungry machines except on price. I don't think data centers should get a star unless they have measured and publish the peak/typical/idle power consumption of each server, as well as the peak/typical power/web-page under a standard benchmark. None of this information is available from any service I know of. A lot of data center power is also wasted because the software is often horribly inefficient, e.g. 100x slower than necessary. - Carl Hage Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:52:35 +0100