The Imbalance of Power
With energy prices on the rise, the green lobby gaining increasing momentum, and IT power consumption doing both, energy awareness and efficiency in the datacentre are no longer optional – and yet it needn’t be a chore….
Imagine you’re running out of server capacity and there’s nothing else for it but to bite the bullet and invest in some new hardware. You would, in all likelihood, take reasonable care in obtaining the replacement kit. You’d think carefully about the exact requirement; do some research, look at the options, consider your budget, factor in business strategy – you know, shop around a bit.
What you certainly wouldn’t do is call some random supplier and have a conversation anything like the following:
“Oh yes hi. Can you please send me some servers?”
“No problem. OK, what are they for? How many do you want? How much do you want to spend? What brand, specifications, speeds, storage, CPUs, and so on would you like? When do you want them?”
“Oh, er, I don’t know. Just send me a selection. Whenever.”
“Er, OK. But how many?”
“Well, we need say four or five… better make it a couple of dozen just in case…”
But that’s just silly. Of course you wouldn’t do anything so ridiculous.
What business would?
Well, perhaps the kind of business without the first clue as to how much power its technology department is consuming on a yearly basis – or, more specifically, a massive 89% of large UK companies according to a 2008 survey. Not convinced that the two scenarios are comparable? Well try this on for size.
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