Energy efficient data centres: experience, measurement and models
Web seminar, May 7th 2008, 2.30pm
As we covered in our October webinar, rising energy costs and the increased awareness of climate change are forcing companies to make their IT provision more energy efficient. There are many competing claims for technologies and approaches to achieve this aim. In this webinar, we hear from the front line of practical efforts to save energy and look forward to how new models might cut through the confusion.
Nic Barnes will explain what Merrill Lynch observed when they applied virtualisation on the desktop and in the server room. He will show the importance of measuring real gains in practice. Liam Newcombe will describe the work of the BCS in evaluating metrics and in developing a model for predicting data centre efficiency. This approach will allows manager to plan and evaluate designs in advance of their implementation. As always, there will be opportunities to ask questions of both speakers.
Register for this webinar by clicking here.
Agenda
2:30 Introduction & Welcome
Dave Berry, Grid Computing Now!
2.35 Merrill Lynch: Virtualisation; green benefits and the reality
Nic Barnes, Global Technology Infrastructure, Merrill Lynch
What looks, on paper, like a significant saving isn’t necessarily so. Merrill Lynch – like many companies concerned about power use and being green – has a policy of turning PCs off at night, but when you move desktop PCs to virtual desktops in the data centre that policy is invalidated by years of data centre operational practice; it’s unheard of to turn servers off. While server consolidation, through virtualisation, does reduce power usage, desktop virtualisation is not as green as might be expected.
2.55 Measuring and modelling energy efficiency in the data centre
Liam Newcombe, BCS Data Centre Specialist Group
Many businesses have now recognised the financial, environmental and brand value benefits of operating a more efficient data centre but are now faced with the challenge of implementing that strategy. With many different energy metrics for the data centre and IT equipment and every vendor pitching their product as a 'green solution' this task is distressingly complex. How can you effectively measure your energy use in the data centre and turn this into a working strategy? How do you make the practical decisions based on this strategy, should you buy product x or product y? To assist our members and the wider computing community the Data Centre Specialist Group has researched these issues extensively to produce metrics and measurement recommendations as well as a data centre simulation model. This model will allow operators to compare different IT and data centre infrastructure components to evaluate the real financial and environmental benefits of each technology, in their specific environment.
3.15 Discussion and Q&A
3.30 Close
Speaker Biographies:
Nic Barnes is a Director of Merrill Lynch’s Global Technology Infrastructure division. Most recently responsible for the build out of a Tier 4 datacentre purpose-designed for Merrill Lynch to support the Europe, Middle East & Africa region. Nic has extensive experience in technology for the finance sector. Past roles have seen Nic responsible for infrastructure groups such as desktop, networks, email, datacentre and internal chargeback. He is currently head of engineering functions across technology infrastructure and is the internal ‘green evangelist’ for the technology division.
Liam Newcombe has over 15 years experience in IT infrastructure, software development and solution design. Liam has delivered services and products used by many of the UK’s biggest brand names. Liam has held a wide variety of roles ranging from operational management to product engineering. He has brought to market a number of data centre based product offerings for businesses such as Digital Island and Cable & Wireless ranging from managed servers to business continuity services. A key innovation was the use of formal mathematical techniques for reliability and maintainability analysis and prediction of customer ICT solutions delivering quantified service level agreements. Liam is a founding committee member of the British Computer Society Data Centre Specialist Group. Today Liam consults on energy efficiency, product strategy and solution architecture to enable businesses to effectively understand the relationship between their requirements and the holistic environmental and financial costs of the technical solutions.
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