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Data centers still waste energy -- or do they?

Data centers still waste energy -- or do they?

By:  Howard Solomon  On: 23 Sep 2012 For: Computing Canada Creator
 

A news investigation punches a hole in boasts that data centres are energy efficient. But, argues an analyst, enterprises -- not 'Internet' data centres, are the villains

If you read our report on IBM Canada's new Barrie, Ont., data centre, you'll know one of the important features is that it's a so-called "green" data centre. But over the weekend a controversy errupted over whether data centres are really saving much energy.
This article from Saturday's New York Times argues most U.S. data centres still waste energy. After a year-long examination of public records, the newspaper concludes that far from the image of energy efficience, data centres in general run round the clock whatever the demand and therefore waste much of the electricity they pull in.
 
 
(Data centre image from Shutterstock)
 
Or do they? This counter-argument in Forbes claims that the NYT piece is misleading in that it suggests the low server utilization rate in corporate data centres is the same as in so-called Intenet data centres of companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google.

"There is no doubt power utilization could be improved," says author Dan Woods of CITO Reseach, "but the big challenge is in IT departments, not the in the Internet leaders.

Read both articles and let us know what you think.


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Howard Solomon Howard Solomon I'm assistant editor of ComputerWorld Canada covering network infrastructure, communications and government IT issues. An IT journalist  since 1997, I've written ... more

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