Data centre energy efficiency lacking
Data centre energy efficiency lacking
Despite efforts to improve the management of energy, recent research has revealed that the energy use of data centres in the UK is growing faster than the number of racks being installed.
Conducted by DatacenterDynamics Research ahead of its London ExCeL conference, the study measured the floor-space and power consumption of the country's data centres using findings from the Global Data Center Industry Census 2011 research paper.
The research found that the growth in data centre power usage is largely down to the increasing rack density, thanks to the fact that both servers and pieces of ancillary equipment are becoming smaller and more powerful.
However, despite these improvements in technology, it was confirmed that power usage will continue to grow. At the moment, consumption was estimated to be around 6.GW annually in UK data centres. Throughout the course of 2011-12, this is expected to grow by 6.7 per cent, adding an extra 410MW to the amount of energy used. This is enough to power around six million homes.
It isn't just power that is on the rise. As businesses expand data centres, the amount of geographical space they take up is also on the rise. The paper estimated that data centres in the UK occupy a total area of 7.6 million square metres in an already cramped country.
This growth in power usage and demand for space could well lead to higher costs for businesses using data centres and it could prompt more organisations to avoid the problem by looking into cloud computing options instead.
Businesses looking to move services into the cloud should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network.
