‘Virtual’ servers can cut hardware needs, reducing capital and operating costs.

You’d never guess that the everyday computer server room gobbles up more than half of the total energy requirements of the average office. Garth Lamb reports.

Until a computer glitch hamstrings the workplace, most people remain blissfully unaware of the behind the scenes dynamics of the IT network. There are few greater examples of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ in the energy efficiency stakes than the data centre that houses computer servers.

This hugely important but oft-forgotten room can be a major power glutton, sucking up more than 50 per cent of the total energy requirements in an office-based environment. In the US, information communication technology (ICT) accounts for 8-13 per cent of total electricity consumption, with data centres the single biggest culprits.

To improve reliability and avoid incompatibility issues, most organisations run each of their applications on a separate server – email may run through one while the client database is hosted on another, for example. While each server needs to have enough capacity to cope with peak demand, they generally run at just 5-15 per cent of capacity and can sit idle 80 per cent of the time.

However, even when idle they use around 30 per cent of peak power – akin to a parked car that requires constant refuelling. And while a typical server used about 100W of power 10 years ago, this has risen to about 350W for modern high performance equipment.

On top of the increase in direct energy consumption, the number of servers per organisation has increased massively, with server density doubling during the past decade to 14 per rack. Global power draw from data centres has doubled over the past five years, while non-IT power use has only increased about three per cent.

The double whammy is that the servers also produce heat, meaning cooling systems are needed to prevent sensitive data centres turning into a sauna. Cooling requirements have increased 125 per cent in 10 years, with the annual cooling bill for all US data centres currently at about US$14 billion ($17 billion). If current trends continue, that figure is tipped to hit US$50 billion by 2010.

Out of the ‘green IT’ explosion in recent years, US-based VMware has developed a virtual infrastructure software solution that allows users to dramatically reduce their IT hardware requirements. It claims “a couple of thousand” clients in Australia after being active for three years, and is currently ramping up the push for more.

Internationally, it has 20,000 customers on the books and claims aggregated power savings of some 8,000 GWh/year, equivalent to about four per cent of Australia’s yearly power consumption. And it sees plenty more work ahead.

The server cycle
“The whole concept of virtual infra-structure now changes the dynamic of how you look at the data centre,” Paul Harapin, head of VMware’s Australian operations, told WME.

The software encapsulates each application in a separate ‘virtual server’ meaning individual applications no longer need to be hosted on physically separate servers. The siloed application can then move throughout different physical servers to where it is most efficient.

“The virtual machines self-optimise around the data centre in accordance with the priorities that an organisation has set... They’re not static, they simply move around all the time, based on the requirements of the business,” Harapin said.

The average consolidation ratio is eight servers down to one, although some customers have achieved ratios above 30:1, not bad at an estimated $2,000 to run a server for a year. Then there are the indirect benefits.

“You’re not just talking about servers. Every time you buy a server, you need to have cables for it, you need to have some networking equipment, storage equipment,” says Harapin.

“You have to find data centre space for them and you have to power them, then you have to cool them.”

Most companies with large server banks run regular refresh cycles, with three-yearly replacement pretty common. One of VMware’s major customers throws out some 1,600 servers a year, a third of its 5,000 servers. Harapin says the company is helping reverse the rising tide of e-waste generation.

“If you’re taking a significant amount of hardware off the floor, then there are all the components that don’t have to be built in the first place,” he points out.

Computing dynamics
“We pretty much see a return on investment that’s either immediate [through lower capital cost] or within six months,” said Harapin.

For organisations introducing virtualisation during their normal replacement cycle, he predicts on average a 30-60 per cent reduction in capital infrastructure expense and up to 80 per cent fall in operational costs, primarily due to an impressive 80-90 per cent reduction in power use. This correlates to a similar reduction in carbon emissions.

“If you asked me a year ago, I would have said the environmental side was a ‘nice to have’ [but performance and cost savings were the primary selling point]... Now the environment’s really becoming a driver,” he said.

The National Australia Bank, for example, recognised its data centre was responsible for more than half of its total energy use when it announced plans to become carbon neutral by 2010. While the nation’s largest bank has a greater savings potential than most organisations, Harapin says VMware is very flexible.

“It’s applicable to businesses of any size, from one or two servers all the way up to thousands and thousands of servers... We would apply to at least 95 per cent of businesses in the country.”

The package is sold on a perpetual licence, meaning users pay for the software up front. There is also an annual subscription and support cost, which covers version upgrades and technical support. As businesses grow and need more servers, they have to pay the additional licence fees.

VMware also has a trial introduction package, a hosted version without the full portability benefits of its major product. It’s available for free download for companies looking to get a feel for the virtualisation concept.

“This really is a transformational technology,” claims Harapin. “I think we will look back in five or 10 years and see that this, along with the internet and the advent of personal computing, is really something that’s just changed the whole dynamic of computing.”

More at www.vmware.com