Power costs 'buying priority' for IT execs
Published: 11 Oct 2006 08:40 BST
Energy considerations are playing into data centre buying decisions, according to a survey commissioned by Sun.
Done by Harris Interactive, the study found that IT executives are increasingly aware of energy, with three-quarters of the nearly 200 executives queried saying that energy-efficiency has become a buying priority.
On the other hand, the study found that many IT directors — 38 percent of respondents — do not know how much they are spending on electricity.
"There are people out there running out of power in their data centres and thinking about energy but [who] have not yet moved to the next stage — managing power consumption, which is a sizeable piece of their budget," said David Douglas, Sun's vice president of eco-responsibility.
The Sun-commissioned study validates Sun's decision to focus on energy efficiency in its server product design and marketing, said Douglas, who was named to his position about six months ago.
Internally, the company has also taken a number of energy-saving steps, such as reducing the energy consumption of its own data centres and having employees work at home.
He said that the majority of technology consumers are driven by practical concerns in regards to energy, rather than environmental goals.
For example, many companies are maxing out the power equipment in their data centres, which is needed to run and cool computing gear. Some companies spend nearly 20 percent of their IT budget on electricity, Douglas said.
A very small percentage, which comprises very large corporations, is energy conscious for both economic and environmental reasons, he said. These companies measure their "carbon footprint", or the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases they emit.
Sun is working on a number of data centre energy-saving initiatives that could be offered as products.
The company is looking at ways to bring cooling devices closer to the computing gear which generates the most heat, Douglas said.
It is also looking at ways that virtualisation can be used, he added. Virtualisation technology will allow customers to potentially power down under-used and consolidate the computing load on other servers, Douglas said.
In addition, Sun is in negotiation with several utilities in the US to replicate a rebate programme around Sun servers that Sun established with California utility Pacific Gas & Electric, he said.
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