Green data center strategies courtesy of the international community

Facilities across the country deal with the challenge of minimizing energy costs in the data center. Streamlining solutions is difficult because each data center environment is unique. Varying infrastructures require unique solutions, but comparing solutions can provide IT departments with valuable inspiration for new ideas to boost data center efficiency. This overview of efficiency solutions from overseas touches on some of the most effective strategies being used by international facilities.

Solutions in Southeast Asia
Data collected by the National Research Foundation in Singapore reveals that data centers are responsible for 7 percent of the country's electricity consumption. These numbers are not surprising given that the nation handles about 70 percent of Southeast Asia's data center needs. Datacenter Dynamics reports that the Singapore government has recently invested $80 million in researching and implementing energy saving technology. High priority is being given to utilizing solid state drives to reduce heat generation, minimizing hardware recycling overlap by adopting cloud infrastructure, and converting to cloud network infrastructures. Greater need for flexibility may also lead the country to investigate methods to enhance network access and making the most of efficiency gains through the use of remote console servers.

Solar cooling spreads to South Africa
South African mobile carrier MTN has introduced an innovative approach to energy efficiency to its Johannesburg headquarters. A 242 mirror solar array will power a water chiller, says IT Web Africa. The chiller lowers the temperature of a water/coolant solution that is then cycled through the data center. The solution absorbs heat, maintaining efficient server temperatures, and releases it into the atmosphere before returning to the chiller to restart the cycle. This solution points toward the opportunity for data centers in any hot and sunny climate to let Mother Nature do heavy lifting of keeping servers at cool temperatures.

Hydro-electric does the job in Canada
French web hosting giant OVH recently constructed an energy-efficient data center in Montreal, Canada. The facility is located less than 1000 ft from a hydro-electric dam that provides a large percentage of the data center's energy, according to Data Center Knowledge. OVH also utilizes an in-house developed cooling solution to eliminate the need for air-conditioning. Again, American facilities can take a page from the international community's handbook when it comes to designing data centers to take advantage of natural environments.

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