(Business Wire) GlassHouse Technologies, the leading independent IT infrastructure consulting and services firm, today released a white paper titled, “Five Key Strategies for a Greener Data Center.” The tips are designed to help companies effectively “green” their data center and are based on independent research and findings from GlassHouse consultants. The paper offers actionable advice as well as answers to common questions on the greening of data centers. GlassHouse has compiled its observations based on an overwhelming response from clients looking to better understand the risks and benefits of greening the data center.
GlassHouse’s research addresses a critical question for companies today: How can I avoid disruptions in the data center and stay ahead of the growing energy demand? According to Ashish Nadkarni, the white paper author and principal consultant at GlassHouse, key tips include:
- Plan ahead: Before anything else, companies must realize that results can not be achieved overnight and that they must plan ahead to realize benefits.
- Take a close look at your technology: It is often more cost effective to buy new equipment than run old equipment that requires more energy and is less powerful.
- Improve utilization through consolidation. According to IDC, most companies utilize less than 10 percent of their servers’ capacity. Whether or not a company invests in new hardware, it is worth paying attention to how current investments are being used to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
- Virtualization: By reducing 100 servers to 25 larger servers through virtualization technology, power and cooling costs can be dramatically reduced.
All moving parts in the data center consume energy, so by looking at the complete IT infrastructure everything becomes an opportunity for savings. As data centers grow, it is inevitable energy costs will become an increasing challenge. By taking proactive steps to maximize utilization of current technology and streamline processes, companies can reduce the amount of electricity consumed and instantly realize benefits. GlassHouse urges IT managers to set the goal of reducing a data center’s carbon footprint and establishing a framework for future planning.
“There are a number of ‘out of the box’ projects an IT manager can do today to get a jumpstart on the effort of greening the data center, so when a CEO or CFO starts pushing for a green strategy, the IT manager will be ahead of the initiative,” said Bill Peldzus, GlassHouse’s vice president of data center services. “Through countless client engagements, GlassHouse has worked with companies to identify critical areas for change. Our key tips are practical steps that can be taken both from a process and people perspective to make the future less stressful.”
About GlassHouse
GlassHouse Technologies is a global provider of IT infrastructure services enabling organizations to consolidate, virtualize and manage their IT environments. GlassHouse delivers services through TransomSM, a unique delivery framework comprised of proprietary software tools, methodologies and domain expertise. We reduce costs, decrease risk and improve service levels by providing measurable results and vendor independent solutions. GlassHouse focuses on the storage/data protection, virtualization and data center markets.
More information about GlassHouse is available at www.glasshouse.com
