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The sky is falling! Global warming is getting worse. Data centers are receiving blame for having a voracious appetite for power. While this is true - data centers accounted for $4.5 billion in energy costs in 2006 - there are a few things IT staff can do now to successfully navigate through green initiatives.

Server Consolidation
The number one driver for going green is to save money and then help the world alleviate global warming.

Consolidating servers using capacity planning or virtualization tools allow users to realize potential cost-savings in hardware, software, staffing and facilities. Let's take a look at a "what if" scenario to see how IT can accurately figure out the cost savings associated with a server consolidation.

We're looking at a server room housing 300 servers and IT must discover how to lower rising utility costs.

Since an underutilized or idle server consumes nearly 33 percent the energy of a fully utilized server, it's a good idea to discover the best opportunities to consolidate.

IT could model different machines based on their footprints from a power and cooling perspective, look at those footprints, and plug those different options into a capacity planning tool and model out the "what if" scenario. The user would know what would happen when the servers are consolidated onto a platform that uses fewer resources.

Once that is known, a Total Cost of Ownership document could be used to figure the best mix for the particular situation regarding the balance between the cost of the servers and the power and cooling that it consumes.

Measure and Monitor
The ability to measure and monitor environmental factors such as temperature and power consumption could help you meet your energy efficiency objectives. What if you could establish parameters for power consumption and heat output in your data center and receive alerts any time those levels were exceeded?

There are devices available today that measure environmental factors. TeamQuest software collects the power and temperature measurements from devices that record this type of information.

With TeamQuest capacity management software, you set the performance levels and integrated alerts flag any readings that go outside the parameters, making it easier to stay compliant with your green data center objectives.

With the right monitoring tools, you can:

• Identify the sources of greatest power usage and potential problem areas
• Ensure real-time compliance with green standards
• Model new configurations to improve energy efficiency and determine if the changes will be effective
• Assess performance improvements and progress towards energy efficiency goals
• Generate reports that equip IT managers to demonstrate alignment with corporate energy efficiency initiatives

Manage Growth Footprint
Overall electricity used by servers doubled between 2000 and 2005, according to a February 2007 report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/Stanford University. In addition, U.S. data centers consume enough electricity to power five percent of homes in the United States.

Proper planning with precise capacity planning tools allows you to support green data center initiatives by:

• Evaluating your current capacity in light of changing business needs and plan ahead accordingly
• Modeling infrastructure changes required to meet new demands and assess the impact on server count and related power consumption and heat output - before you make the investment
• Maintaining a green data center environment through continuing server consolidation and optimization

Corporations are assigning more resources toward "green IT" to achieve operational improvements. Use the right mix of capacity planning tools to give you peace of mind and make your competition envious.

Do you have to overcome challenges to develop a more energy-efficient data center? If so, share your stories.