Reducing Data Center Energy Consumption
John T. Judge, Jack Pouchet, Anand Ekbote, Sachin Dixit · 2008
Rising data center energy consumption and increasing energy costs have combined to elevate the importance of reducing data center energy consumption as a strategy to reduce costs, manage capacity, and promote environmental responsibility. Within almost every organization, data center energy consumption has been driven by demand for greater computing capacity and increased IT centralization. The demand has been increasing by approximately 12 % per year. 1 While this was occurring, U.S. electricity prices have increased by 4.4 % per year. 2 The financial implications are significant. Estimates of annual power costs for U.S. data centers now range as high as $3.3 billion. 1 The good news is that there is general agreement within the industry that improvements in data center efficiency are possible. A 2007 EPA report to the U.S. Congress concluded that best practices can reduce data center energy consumption