First servers and now Data Centers. I am happy to see more tools and measurements being created to support the effort for businesses to achieve energy efficiency. What is interesting is that this is not going to be an easy task to earn the label. Companies are really going to have to invest in order to have the Energy Start Label. Only those facilities above the 75th percentile on the EPA's benchmark scale will qualify, so it will definitely be meaningful and should encourage more management interest in energy conservation.
Based on the EPA’s 1-to-100 rating system, data center operators will enter basic information about their energy use and operational characteristics into a password-protected account they establish in the EPA’s Portfolio Manager, an online energy-benchmarking tool.
For those that have not faced the energy consumption issue - this may help catch some attention. It's a great goal to give to those companies that have not yet looked to reduce energy consumption and does provide a nice incentive to try.
Data centers account for 1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption at a cost of $4.5 billion annually, which is expected to almost double over the next five years, according to the EPA.
Based on the latest available data, improving the energy efficiency of U.S. data centers by just 10 percent would save more than 6 billion kilowatt-hours each year, enough to power more than 350,000 homes and save more than $450 million annually, the federal agency states.
Data centers have been facing pressures to reduce costs, energy consumption and physical footprint. This helps bring some metrics to those Data Centers that are looking to turn to virtualization and other technologies to address these pain points. For those that have started down the path - this could help give them an opportunity to see if they are moving in the right direction!
SAP has many certified virtualization solutions. More to come from Red Hat's efforts within the Green IT Community. Just recently, customers can now choose Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for their SAP landscape. KVM has been certified for some time and this just illustrates our commitment with this effort and look forward to even more collaboration in the area of Green IT and Sustainability.
