DVL Group Blog with Helpful Information on Running Your Data Center

How Much Energy Does the Internet Use?

by Mike Rinaldi on 6/18/12 4:11 PM

“No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.” It’s a funny email signature, but how many inconvenienced electrons does it take to power the internet?

In 2011, the digital universe, or the amount of information created and replicated, reached 1.8 trillion gigabytes, and this digital universe is doubling in size every two years. Much of that digital information is housed in data centers around the world, and running these data centers requires a huge amount of electrical energy.

A 10-megawatt (MW) data center can use the energy of a small town at a cost of around $300,000 a month. Couple that with the fact that there are over 500,000 data centers in the world, according to Emerson Network Power, and we’re talking about 2% of all electrical energy used globally. So, running the internet uses upwards of 406 terawatts per year, assuming 20.3 petawatt-hours as the world’s annual electrical energy consumption.

The odd thing is that in traditional data centers, only half of the energy consumed is useful for running the digital universe: powering the servers that hold our emails, social networking profiles, and the like. The other half of the energy goes into cooling those servers, or it’s lost as heat when electricity is changed between alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC).

What are the 4 trends driving the future of Data Center infrastructure design and management?

Internet Energy Usage

Click here to read the full energy usage article

Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, reduce cost, Data Center, data center design, kW per rack, data center infrastructure management, DVL, electrical distribution, reduce downtime, data center outages

How much power, cooling, and space do you have in your data center?

by Mike Rinaldi on 5/1/12 11:33 AM

Are you looking for a tool that Facilities and IT can use?

"IT has the need to manage the racks so when Facilities takes down services, they know what is effected. The tool will also help them know what resources are available - power, space, and network".

What are the obstacles/challenges of Data Center Infrastructure Management?

See a DEMO of how Liebert/Emerson has integrated server management and control and cooling/power to optimize your Data Center performance through Trellis at DVL on May 9 or 10.

Click the link to sign up and attend.

Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, Data Center, Green IT, data center design, cloud computing, data center energy, data center infrastructure management, PUE, robust data center, DVL, reduce downtime, data center outages

What does Trellis mean?

by Mike Rinaldi on 4/27/12 1:29 PM

Trellis may refer to:

1. An architectural structure often used to support plants

2. A special kind of graph, often used in coding

3. A lattice

4. Quantization, a method of improving data compression, often used in video compression

5. An outodoor garden frame which can be used for partitioning a common area

6. A trestle, a bridge that consists of a number of short spans

Trellis

In the Data Center world - the Trellis platform represents a groundbreaking innovation from Emerson Network Power - one that bridges the gap between IT and Facilities. Trellis helps IT and Facilities connect, communicate and control all assets within the data center. The intelligence build into the platform allows you to execute decisions in real-time and then immedidately validate and assess the impact on your critical infrastructure.

Learn more about Data Center Infrastructure Management & Trellis at the DVL event on May 9 or 10:

Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, reduce cost, Data Center, Green IT, data center design, data center energy, data center infrastructure management, robust data center

Are you prepared for the top 10 Data Center surprises?

by Mike Rinaldi on 4/23/12 2:47 PM

Get prepared for the top 10 Data Center surprises at DVL

Emerson released a list of 10 common surprises for data center and IT managers and offered tips on how to be prepared for them. The list, released at AFCOM Data Center World Spring, includes information on a surprising cause of data center downtime, what data center managers might not know about that next server refresh, and the growing trend sneaking up on virtually every IT manager.

“When you are a data center or IT manager, very few things are more unsettling than the unexpected,” said Peter Panfil, vice president of global power, Emerson Network Power. “We hope this list helps IT professionals better anticipate these issues and prepares them with the appropriate technologies, solutions and best practices.”

data center challenge

Get Prepared for the Top 10 Data Center surprises (click below).

Download Top Data Center Surprises (click below).

Topics: Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, Data Center, Green IT, data center design, kW per rack, data center infrastructure management, robust data center, DVL, electrical distribution

Are You Looking For a Tool that Data Center Facilities & IT Can Use?

by Mike Rinaldi on 4/18/12 10:50 AM

Will you be using a DCIM solution within 2 years?

While many management organizations have already invested in technology resources (people, processes and tools) to manage data center infrastructure, critical gaps still remain in the physical infrastructure, virtual infrastructure and IT workloads. The Trellis platform provides a fundamentally new perspective on managing the entire data center in that it recognizes:

The importance of real-time data to understand the true capacity of available infrastructure
The criticality of interdependencies between logical and physical layers
The need for holistic management capabilities and visibility of IT and physical infrastructures
The need for more powerful management tools that offer a rich, visual view of the infrastructure and can guide design and change management

DCIM