Users Search for Power Solutions

Despite a flurry of recent activity from vendors, there is no one technology capable of solving data center power problems, according to users at the Storage Decisions conference in New York today, who cited the need to juggle an array of different products and solutions.

"There's no silver bullet," warned Ron Richards, a consultant and business continuity planning coordinator at the New York City Department of Corrections. "No one vendor has the best-of-breed for everything when it comes to hardware and software for power management."

Speaking during a presentation this morning, analyst Greg Schulz of the StorageIO Group attempted to debunk the "myth" that some emerging technologies, such as MAID, can solve users' data center power problems at the flick of a switch.

A number of vendors, including Copan, Nexsan, Fujitsu, and NEC, have championed MAID technology as a way for users to reduce their power costs by using a number of spinning disks that serve as a cache for a set of non-spinning, passive disks. If a data request is not found in the cache, the appropriate passive disks are powered up.

This week, HDS also unveiled a competitor to MAID, touting the ability to power down selected groups of disks on its midrange systems.StorageIO Group's Schulz urged users to approach these technologies with their eyes open. "It's a myth that powering off devices is a silver bullet -- it might save power but you're going to have a lot of performance issues," he said, adding that technologies such as MAID are best suited to storage that is rarely accessed.

Despite these shortcomings, the analyst highlighted the potential of what he characterizes as Intelligent Power Management (IPM) products, such as a SATA drive with different power settings that has been developed by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), the parent company of HDS. "IPM is about more than just MAID," he said, explaining that recent announcements have at least focused attention on the "pros and cons" of MAID.

The analyst also urged users to consider deploying a broad range of solutions to solve their data center power problems, even using de-duplication and compression. "Tape and de-dupe is a tremendous combination -- de-dupe your data and create an ultra-dense copy of that on tape," he said, explaining that this can cut users' data footprint.

At least one IT manger attending the event sanctioned these tactics. "He's right -- you have to cover all the bases," said Rudolf Rosefort, vice president of management information systems at the Empire State Development Corp. "We're doing de-duplication, snapshots, and off-site tape backups."

CIOs and IT managers also need to go back to basics, according to the StorageIO Group's Schulz, who quizzed his audience on their own power reduction plans. "Have you done a facilities assessment? There's low hanging fruit that you can grab by going through your facility and checking," he said, using the example of excess under-floor cabling that can slow down air movement.The analyst also highlighted other ways that users could become more environmentally friendly. "If you're concerned, and you want to feel good, you could buy some carbon credits," he said, explaining that specific carbon footprints for firms are already mandated in the European Union (EU) .

This week Dell announced plans to become carbon neutral, which followed similar moves by News Corp and Volkswagen. Earlier this year, IBM revealed its own green strategy, allocating $1 billion to drive environmentally friendly initiatives both inside and outside the company.

Today also saw the launch of The Green Data Project, a joint initiative by The Data Management Institute and Archive Management.org (AMO). The project, which is sponsored by a number of vendors, including FileTek, Caringo, and Plasmon, aims to share information on how electronic data can be managed to cut power consumption.

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