20 Nov 2008
The EU launched a new voluntary code of conduct for datacentre operators yesterday, designed to help them cut energy costs and curb the IT sector's burgeoning carbon footprint.
Firms signing up to the code will be expected to adhere to a range of best practices intended to enhance datacentre energy efficiency, include environmental and energy considerations in their purchasing criteria and report annually on their energy consumption.
Lord Hunt, minister for sustainable development and energy innovation, said that with government figures showing that three per cent of UK electricity is used in datacentres, there was a strong case for firms to follow the new code.
"By signing up to this new code of conduct, companies can save energy and save money too, which goes to show that what’s good for the environment is good for business," he said.
John Higgins, Director General of Intellect, the trade association for the UK technology industry which was involved in the development of the code, welcomed the move. "Through this initiative we will better understand which practices are most effective and provide improved capacity at reduced cost to the environment, " he said.
However, critics have claimed that the voluntary nature of the code and the fact that businesses that fail to report energy use or meet emission targets will face no repercussions will undermine its effectiveness.
But Rob Coupland, chief operating officer of Telecity Group – which is one of the first companies to sign up to the code – said that the code would secure strong support from industry as growing number of firms are looking to cut their datacentre energy bills anyway. "Improving efficiency is good business for us as much as anything else," he said.
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A great start
From both a business and technical perspective, the EU?s code of practice is a very good start. From a business planning view, however this is a warning that the politicians may look to sharpen their pens, preparing to legislate or further regulate or tax poor data centre efficiency. The days of installing excess capacity and running empty servers ?just in case? are long gone. IT professionals need to heed the message and begin benchmarking data centre efficiency. Firstly they should be looking at the DCiE (Data Centre infrastructure Efficiency) as recommended in the EU code. This should then be extended, thinking in terms of linking to other business metrics that allow expression of data centre usage, cost and efficiency in terms of the contribution to the organisation. Measuring profit per petaflop may be going too far, but establishing a direct link to computing costs in cash and environmental cost terms is a powerful tool. Having such figures will help IT departments provide senior management, as well as auditing bodies, with quantifiable and demonstrable cost savings ? and of course environmental benefits that can be achieved by investing in new, or optimising existing, data centre infrastructures. Gathering accurate data is no simple task: there are a huge range of potential factors to take into account. However only once business management have actionable data on which to base their decisions on, will we really start to see improvement in practices and measurable progress on the ground.
Posted by Chris Smith, 24 Nov 2008