2008 Strategies for Green IT at Penn:Data centers and servers:Brainstorming

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This is the brainstorming information from the 2008_Strategies_for_Green_IT_at_Penn:Data_centers_and_servers#Brainstorming page.

Brainstorming

Ideas about team direction should go here. Below are some examples to begin discussion:

  • Virtualization
    • At which point does virtualization make sense?
    • Where is the break even point on non-server intensive applications?
      • Provide how-to on monitoring cpu/mem utilization and forecasting performance on virtual servers? (added by Stephanie)
  • Cooling
    • How can cooling loads be reduced in data centers overall?
      • Suggest giving this to a student team in the School of Design? Challenge: Sugggest low-impact changes to existing rooms to reduce cooling needs. Could be given as a class (added by Stephanie)
  • Hardware Lifecycle/Roadmap/Growthchart
    • How about "birth-to-death" type of guideline showing the different choices you could make to "green" your servers from choosing a vendor, unpacking the equipment, choosing a space in the datacenter, monitoring usage, and responsibly recycling?
  • Power consumption (added by: clayw)
    • What steps can be taken to lower the overall power consumption in the data center?
    • What about software solutions vs. hardware solutions (eg. firewalls)? When/Where does it make sense to use software solutions over hardware solutions?
    • Relevant conference on April 9th in NYC - http://www.aertc.org/docs/080409EnergyConference.pdf
  • Build Awareness / Orient Non-IT Folks (added by Barbara)
    • Penn's Green Campus Partnership (http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/sustainability/) - Partner with this new Penn consortium. Website goes online April 10, will feature podcasts under the heading "Five Minutes to a Green Campus."
    • Submit a podcast summarizing Green IT at Penn? (see above).
    • Students, faculty and staff such as Business Admins may not "get" the advantage of the Green Data Center. Yet, these are the very user groups that can help to influence policy and act as advocates for greening the system.
    • Provide some basic awareness materials geared to each group.
    • Highlight connection between energy efficiency / environmental impact / economic advantage.
    • Explore and provide examples of cash flow opportunities (how can savings from Green Data Center be used to effect cash flow?)
    • Explore information distribution channels such as:
      • Penn "Green" Purchasing website, Penn Green IT website, Penn Recyclemania website, Business Admin meetings, HR Brown Bag Topic, IT Staff Convention, WebSIG Meetings, Wiegle Information Commons Session, Knowledge Link Self Learning Module, etc.
      • Keep contact with sustainability efforts in different schools. Wharton Social Impact has an environmental sustainability interest. http://wga.wharton.upenn.edu/club_info.asp?ID=19
  • Can we learn more about the design of data centers in the new Penn LEED-certified buildings? (added by Barbara)
    • Example: The Penn Center for Advanced Medicine will open late 2008. New SOM research buildings will open in 2011. Does anyone know what's going on with the data centers in these LEED buildings? Is there a contact? Granted, any information gleaned would be in contrast to retrofitting older systems, but it may be helpful.
  • I'm not sure what measures have been taken to Green the current SEO data center, but plans can always be made to transition those ideas towards a new data center, which will probably be in place within the next 5 years or so. It is difficult in some areas to make the current SEO data center Green in some respects because of the location, and the fact that there are other environmental factors that hinder that movement towards more Green solutions. Whether through virtualization, which has been effective so far with its implementation, or through power management for servers and networking equipment, there is only so much that can be done with limited capacity. (added by donv)
  • Example Calculation (added by Gavin)
    • power can be as much as hardware cost alone
    • assuming $0.07 per kWh & 32 nodes at max load
    • 24h/d * 365d * 5y * 0.497kW * 0.07$/kWh * 32
    • node 497W max = $49k / 5yr
    • node 670W max = $66k / 5yr
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