Trending: Leaner Data Centers

The mention of data centers conjures up images of racks and racks of equipment with lights blinking and power supplies buzzing. However, efficient data centers don’t always have to be like that. As of late, data centers have started to apply the minimalist philosophy to data centers as well, so that data centers perform just as efficiently and handle just as much as data as before with less equipment. In fact, in today’s highly competitive world, the square footage should ideally be the least expensive component of data center operations.

There are three critical ways for large-scale data centers to reduce their square footage costs.

Many data centers, especially large ones, take the servers running on their premises for granted. The fact remains that many large data centers invariably have many old servers running with very few knowing what these servers do. Empirical evidence suggests that as high as 40 percent of the servers in large and established data centers are unused, yet these servers continue to remain on, as no one is ready to unplug them and risk bringing the entire system crashing. Many old machines are antiquated ones, sucking huge quantities of energy and taking up valuable space. Undertaking a physical audit to remove the unneeded servers, and shift the data to eliminate unneeded servers, would reduce the data center space and racks considerably, reducing all round costs, especially energy and square footage costs.

Many data centers continue to run on bulky legacy servers, as the effort it takes to replace them would be phenomenal and would cause major disruptions to boot. Taking a one-time effort to bite the bullet may be worth its while in creating considerable savings every month. Sleek new generation servers are many times more efficient than bulky old ones.

Another better approach is clustering. This entails a diametric shift in data center setup, doing away with the traditional racks entirely. New generation micro servers come in boxes no more than the size of Rubix’s cubes. Data centers can simply add another micro server to the existing chunk as demand rises. These micro servers consume just a tenth of the power required to operate a conventional quad-core AMD or Intel server, and occupy way less space.

To start a conversation on how to store your data efficiently, contact us at Lifeline Data Centers today.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.