Final version of Energy Star server specs released

Server manufacturers are being invited to sign up to the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) high-profile Energy Star efficiency initiative, after the agency last week finalised the specifications for computer servers to carry the Energy Star label.

Following years in development and repeated draft versions, the EPA released the final version of its computer server specifications on Friday, detailing the energy efficiency standards servers have to attain to carry the label.

Under the new specifications, servers wishing to carry the label will have to meet minimum standards governing energy use when the server is in idle mode and the efficiency of the product's power supply unit. They will also have to feature power management functionality that is enabled when the product is shipped and offer support to virtualisation technologies that help to enhance datacentre energy efficiency.

In addition, any manufacturer wishing to carry the label on its products will have to submit to spot checks and independent product testing from the EPA designed to ensure its energy efficiency claims are accurate.

In a letter to server manufacturers, Andrew Fanara, head of the Energy Star product development team at the EPA, said that the specification was effective immediately and invited IT firms to sign up to the Energy Star partner programme, which will allow them to carry the label on qualified products.

Under the terms of the partnership agreements, manufacturers will agree to comply with the new product eligibility criteria and rules governing the use of the energy star label. Once the agreement is signed, firms can begin submitting products for energy star qualification and start carrying the label on servers and associated marketing material.

Fanara said that the EPA had already begun work on the next version of the server specifications, which will aim to extend certification to cover four processor sockets, blade systems, and a range of other technologies, all of which were excluded from the first version of the specification after as number of manufacturers expressed concerns about the extent to which different product configurations would make it difficult assess a product's overall energy efficiency.

He added that the goal was to launch this Tier 2 specification in October next year, and that it could include a new metric for measuring energy efficiency that takes into account the amount of work being performed by the system.

The launch of the new specification comes at a time when the IT industry is facing increasing criticism for its huge energy demands. Only last week a major study from the International Energy Agency warned that the sector's increasing energy demands are outstripping efforts by manufacturers to develop more energy efficient technologies.

Industry experts have long maintained that the development of an independent standard to measure server's energy efficiency should help accelerate efforts to develop more efficient systems, by undermining attempts by some firms to develop competing metrics for measuring energy use.