Network World: IT should pay the power bill, reasons eBay exec

Regardless of your beliefs on server purchase price versus long-term power costs, data center power costs are a significant portion of the costs of doing business in your IT organization.

While not a common practice in most organizations, having IT departments pay their power bills would lead to far more efficient data centers, argued Dean Nelson, senior director of global data center services for eBay.

Why? The potential money saved from upgrading to more energy-efficient equipment would all but ensure that the chief information officer or the IT executive in charge design the most energy-efficient data centers possible, Nelson reasoned.

“When the CIO is paying the power bill, [he or she] really understands the impact of the decisions being made,” he told an audience of data center managers at the Uptime Institute Symposium 2010, being held this week in New York. “You’re self-funding the activities [you wish to pursue] by becoming more and more efficient,” he said.

More of the Network World article from Joab Jackson

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.