Data center experts turn to efficient energy saving technology
Author: Shawn Green

In the past decade more and more companies are utilizing electronic databases. Some may need to house pertinent information for several years or just a few months. But whatever their time schedules may be, storage and management of data is increasingly becoming a key issue for countless businesses driving their need for efficient and secure data centers.

Corey Johnson, the president and chief technology officer of Creative Network Innovations, a managed solution provider in Suntree said he has been amazed by the growth in the data center industry.

When Johnson began his Brevard-based company in 1997 he had one customer. Now, not quite a decade later, he has about 3,000 from all over the globe.

Johnson, now 37, said he has been part of the computer "geek" set since he was nine-years old, back when that group had a much smaller membership.

"If someone told me it would be like this I wouldn't have believed them," he said of the amount of people using computers today.

Johnson's business continues to boom, so to meet the needs of a growing clientele he opted to expand his space. The company has moved to a new location in Suntree. The new space is about 6,000 square-feet, 2,000 of which will be used to house servers in the company's data center. This is a sharp comparison to the 2,200 square-foot facility they previously occupied, of which only about 900 square-feet was used to house servers.

At the time of the recent move, which was a year in planning, Johnson said the center was about half-full, however he foresees that number to change rapidly because of the industry's huge growth potential.

The data industry business may be booming, however, becoming a steward of information is no easy task. Johnson said the ever-increasing information seems to take on a life of its own.

"This is easily the hardest thing I have ever done in my life," Johnson said. "This is basically managed chaos," he said gesturing around the immaculate storage area lined with racks of servers.

The room is equipped with several high-powered air conditioning units, a gas-based fire suppression system, and concrete flooring. Cables, dozens of them, snake around the top of the ceiling rather than on the ground in the event of flooding. Other protection measures used by the center include redundant diesel generators and OC-12 and OC-192 SONET Ring Connectivity.

Security issues, weather related disasters, and a host of other possible hazards are always looming in the distance as a potential threat to any data center. However, currently the most pressing threat to centers according to industry experts is the loss of power.

Earlier this year AFCOM, a not-for-profit association for data center professionals with more than 3,000 members and 22 chapters worldwide released a survey outlining five predictions for the future of the data center industry. Of the five issues outlined the report, power failures and qualified labor shortages were identified as key problem areas within the next several years.

According to the information gathered by the association, within the next five years, one out of every four data centers will experience a serious disruption of their day-to day business operation. By 2015, the talent pool of qualified senior level technical and management data center professionals will shrink by 45 percent. And within the next five years, power failures and limits will cease operations at more than 90 percent of all industry companies.

Jaimie Man serves as treasurer for the Indiana chapter of AFCOM and is the employed as the director of IT for an Indiana health care facility. Man, who is a 15-year veteran of the information technology management business, said he would not call the power predictions grim, but feels industry companies need to be aware of the risks.

"They are things that can be managed and handled," he said. "We're aware of it, but we're trying to make the public more aware of it."

Man said the association wants to connect users with newer, more efficient technology. For instance, switching to processors that use less or similar amounts of energy but have more muscle. Man suggests data center professionals check out web sites such as, TheGreenGrid.org to glean energy saving information. The Green Grid is an association of information technology professionals who seek to lower the amount of power used by data centers.

Johnson said while he agrees that data center operators should be made aware of the possibilities of an energy crisis, the information is really nothing new.

"I've been going with green servers for years," Johnson said. "Anything I purchase is green."

Johnson said he also remains prepared for outages. For instance his center was without power for 7 days during the 2004 hurricanes, Jeanne and Frances, but the buisness experienced no downtime whatsoever. This, he said, is attributed to the company's double diesel generator system. The system includes two 1,000-gallon fuel tanks and an additional four extra drums of the stuff that can be pumped manually if necessary.

Although Johnson is prepared for most emergencies, he said the production of energy conscious machines is certainly beneficial to the industry. One endeavor that may spur companies to manufacture more power efficient machines is marking computers with energy usage ratings similar to the energy star rating seen on appliances. This notion is currently being looked at by members of the Storage Networking Industry Association, a not-for-profit organization offering information to industry professionals.

Mark Carlson, a member of the association's technical council and senior architect for Sun Microsystems Storage Group, said the rating system is still in the discussion stages, but is definitely on the horizon. Carlson said if consumers have the ability to make their buying decisions based on a power-usage rating, it could create a more competitive market for manufacturers to offer a less energy consuming product.

Right now, Carlson said, the only way for the consumer to see what kind of power a machine uses is to hook a power-meter up to its CPU. This may not be the ideal way for company buyers to do they're shopping homework. With the implementation of a rating system, the concerned consumer would only have to glance at a number among the machines specifications.

Johnson said he believes the rating system will help.

"If you look at two servers and they're both really nice, but one draws more power which one are you going to buy?"

See Full Story in Brevard Technical Journal Online


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