Archive for the ‘Saving Money’ Category
03 - 12 - 10
By: Darren Bonawitz
Here are some ways to go green.
1. Start with a energy audit to determine current carbon footprint and serve as a baseline for
measurement
2. Install blanking panels to prevent air mixing between hot and cold aisles
3. Maintain proper under floor static pressure
4. Ensure the area under raised floors are as free from debris/congestion as possible
5. Replace older computer room air conditioners (CRACs) with newer and more energy efficient models
6. Implement hot aisle/cold aisle concepts including containment strategies
7. Utilize virtualization to reduce server footprint
8. Utilize low power servers when applicable
9. Convert from three-way to two-way valve CRAC Units
10. Invest in a robust environmental monitoring and control system
11. Measure temperature at the front of the cabinets and make temperature control decisions on that data
12. Replace older networking gear with more energy efficient models
13. Utilize “free cooling” if the geographical environment makes it possible
14. Evaluate replacing metal-halide fluorescent fixtures with T5HO lighting
15. Determine reasonable goals and a realistic plan and get going on a set date rather than always waiting
until tomorrow
03 - 08 - 10
Click here to register:
03 - 04 - 10
Posted By: Darren Bonawitz
A few days ago, I was featured in an article written by Sixto Ortiz Jr. on processor.com focusing on energy savings in the data center. Thank you so much for the feature. The following is an excerpt where I’m featured. To read the entire article, click “read more” at the bottom of this post.
Energy Savings In The Data Center
Power and cooling in the data center go hand in hand. Servers need power to function but also need plenty of cooling so power dissipated as excess heat does not interfere with server functionality. So, energy savings can easily be captured by performing tasks that optimize power management and cooling.
Darren Bonawitz, principal owner of a Kansas City data center called 1102 GRAND (www.1102grand.com), says administrators should install blanking panels to prevent air mixing between hot and cold aisles, maintain proper under-floor static pressure, remove debris and congestion from the area under raised floors, replace older computer room air conditioners with newer and more energy-efficient models, and utilize low-power servers. (read more)
02 - 25 - 10
Welcome to Darren Bonawitz’s podcast.
By: Darren Bonawitz
Hi, this is Darren Bonawitz, co-owner at 1102 GRAND, which if you’re not familiar with us, were one of the primary Internet hubs in the Midwest. Also, a collocation facility that offers cabinets, cages, private suites and raw space for customer build outs.
In this particular podcast I wanted to talk about the announcement Microsoft made regarding their collaboration with the U.S. National Science Foundation or the NSF. Essentially, researchers are going to be selected by the NSF and those that are so lucky will then have free access to Microsoft Windows Azure cloud computing platform, which is a nice perk. The interesting thing to me on this is the fact that the cloud-computing platform itself is still relatively young in its own infancy, but utilizing it for research in this manner is an interesting way to go about it.
02 - 22 - 10
By Darren Bonawitz
I want to provide some insight on why Kansas City is a good place to establish a data center or collocation presence.
- Second most affordable major market for data centers (Source: The Boyd Company)
- Geographically centered in the United States
- Located away from the coasts and hurricane threats
- Located outside of high risk earthquake zones
- Reliable and cost-effective electric utilities
- Highly educated talent pool
- Active technology community
- Robust telecommunications infrastructure
- Very competitive economic incentive programs
- Entreprenuer magazine named Kansas City the #1 place to start and grow a business in the Midwest
02 - 08 - 10
By Darren Bonawitz
Attention data center relocation consultants and enterprise customers considering a new data center location, here is another reason why to look at the Midwest and specifically Kansas City.
Water Shortage to Put a Damper on Data Center Cooling?
From The Data Center Journal (datacenterjournal.com), Written by Jeffrey Clark
Recent droughts throughout the United States, along with a growing concern about water shortage (especially in the western US), could also be an increasing threat to data centers. To be sure, water is not the first topic that comes to mind when considering data center design and operation, but it is in many cases a paramount concern.
The vast majority of data centers rely to some extent on water as part of their cooling system for keeping equipment from overheating. Some estimates have places water usage at a typical 15-megawatt data center at 360,000 gallons of water per day. A Microsoft data center facility in Northlake, Illinois, uses about eight million gallons per month—the equivalent of almost 270,000 gallons per day. (read more)
10 - 02 - 09
Article from the Environmental Leader here outlines how the Symantec Corp, an infrastructure software provider, will save $2.1 million dollars by their green IT efforts in a little over 3 years. Its a good read and case study on how green IT efforts can impact a specific company, and adds credibility to our continuing efforts. We brought up the benefits of greening IT up in a previous post – To Green The Data Center, IT Has To Feel Some Pain, and hope this article from a leading daily trade publication keeping corporate executives fully informed about energy, environmental and sustainability news helps prove our point that going green is a must!
Also, another article from the Environmental Leader finds that, according to a recent survey from Symantec, nearly all senior-level IT executives are at least discussing a green information technology (IT) strategy, while 45 percent have already implemented green IT initiatives. This is big news for the future of Green IT! Here’s the full story.
