Plugging the Gap in Green IT

From flash memory to low-power SATA drives and spin-down disk technology, green storage has certainly been one of the big themes of EMC World this week.

EMC finally unveiled its first system containing spin-down disk technology yesterday, and also talked up the energy saving benefits of flash and low-power SATA drives.

Not to be outdone, EMCs arch-rival HDS timed a major green announcement of its own to coincide with the first day of EMC World.

By announcing support for flash drives and availability of 1-Tbyte SATA drives in its USP V and USP VM, HDS clearly wants to be seen banging the same eco-friendly drum as EMC.

At least one analyst thinks that these technologies, although offering some energy savings, are just one small part of the broader green equation.The real reason for "brown" data centers is poorly provisioned UPSes and power distribution systems,says Robin Harris of StorageMojo.

“You’re not going to see as fast a take-up until any of these green initiatives start addressing power provisioning capabilities,” he adds.

High capital expenditure costs for buying power systems and building data centers leave many users fighting an uphill battle when it comes to energy efficiency, according to Harris.

The analyst points to a Google study which reveals that, even if a facility operates at 85 percent of its capacity on average, the cost of building the facility will still be higher than all electricity expenses for the first 10 years of operation.

Despite these challenges, there are ways for users to tackle power provisioning. HDS, for example, recently announced major power savings in its Yokohama, Japan, data center, thanks to a slew of different technologies.The vendor has developed a number of ‘"environmental prototypes" in Yokohama, which include specially made water-cooled racks (called thermal hydraulic cooling devices), UPS systems, and "supermorphous" power supply converters.

HDS is already touting the Yokohama facility as the world’s “greenest” data center, so maybe now is the time to really start taking these "environmental prototypes" to the masses.

Otherwise, technologies such as spin-down disks, flash, and low power SATA drives could be little more than a band aid on users’ broader power problems.

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