Green Benefits: Reduced Costs, Carbon Footprint

Loren Zweig is vice president of engineering at CoreLink Data Centers, LLC.

Loren-Zweig

As third-party providers of mission-critical IT infrastructure that guarantees secure, uninterrupted network and critical environment uptime, commercial data centers enable their clients to focus on their core functions.

Data center clients, whether in the communications, marketing, manufacturing - truly in most any field - are not in the business of IT. They exist to fulfill their customers’ business needs with assurance, which they’re able to do in part by outsourcing their necessary, although non-revenue-generating IT infrastructure operations. Outsourcing or co-sourcing IT functions and services, requires corporate CTOs and other decision makers to choose data center service providers not only for the facilities’ ability to deliver redundant and reliable critical power, cooling and network services, but also for their ability to do so in ways that minimize environmental impact and carbon footprint.

Fortunately, the most environmentally conscientious data center service providers have or are in the process of implementing green initiatives that lessen carbon footprints, operating physical plants more efficiently and effectively and thereby lowering operating costs. Operating critical environments as efficiently as possible also has the tangential benefit of helping customers demonstrate a strong commitment to corporate citizenship and environmental sensitivity.

Improved Data Center Environmental Efficiencies

Green data center initiatives that improve data center efficiencies take on many forms, including Energy Star-rated or other highly efficient power, cooling, and lighting systems. At the heart of these efforts is a commitment to operating data centers as self-contained ecosystems that promote lower energy consumption and operating costs, and facilitating, in a growing number of municipalities and states, lower tax rates and rebates.

The most-comprehensive green data center initiatives include both highly efficient technology as well as relatively simple ways to maximize overall data center building efficiencies, comparable to insulating homes against Arizona heat and Alaska cold. Among others, these methods below bring efficiency to the data center.

Green Techniques to Maximize Building Efficiency

Data Center Is A Self-Contained Ecosystem

The key tenet of a data center’s successfully devised and implemented green initiative involves viewing the facility as a self-contained ecosystem in which physical plant and technology equipment efficiency of at least 80 percent or Energy-Star rated is sacrosanct. This number represents an important benchmark as power costs continue to increase and larger colocation and managed services customers are able to implement metered-power infrastructure charges, effectively shifting the responsibility for reducing consumption and increasing efficiency to the end user.

CTOs interested in achieving data center efficiencies need to work with technology that meets or exceeds the Energy Star-rated and LEED Certified brass rings. Those that do are in the best position to partner with their outsourced data center provider to help their company achieve a a reduced carbon footprint, lower operating costs and receive credit bestowed upon the greenest in the land.

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