There was a simple yet telling comment in the New York Times recently (‘The Rise of the Humble Engineer,’ June 17, 2008 ) from Chandrakant Patel, a mechanical engineer in HP Labs who oversees the company’s programs in energy-efficient data centers and technology. He’s working on research focused on things like replacing cooper wiring in server computers with laser beams. Very cool stuff. But, he added ‘data centers can be made 30 percent to 50 percent more efficient by applying current technology.’
Bingo! He hit it right on the head. There is no doubt a great need for advanced new energy-efficient technologies exists, and we trust smart minds like Mr. Patel will unearth them. But, there is also much that can be done right now, simply and cost effectively. The technologies exist, and in many ways, they just need to be turned on.
One simple and easy way to incorporate green storage technology is to purchase energy-saving storage that is designed into your normal, ongoing RAID storage purchases. We feel strongly that energy efficiency should not be an afterthought or a separate consideration. It should be designed in from the beginning, at no added cost and with no added technical decisions. To this end, our AutoMAID technology comes as a standard feature on all Nexsan storage products at no extra charge. Best of all, activating AutoMAID is as simple as changing a light bulb.
Everyday people are offered simple ways to save energy in their homes through the use of energy-efficient light bulbs. AutoMAID offers a similarly user-friendly approach; it doesn’t require sophisticated or expensive software on the host computer or even a professional services engagement. Data center administrators need only toggle a setting or two and they’re done—the system takes care of the rest. It powers down according to user-defined settings, saving energy but not sacrificing performance because it returns to full activity nearly instantaneously. Saving energy with AutoMAID is as simple as installing an energy-efficient light bulb and the effect can be more dramatic with power savings of 20-60 percent.
We’re cheering on Mr. Patel and the efforts of other brilliant engineers diligently working on new ways of tackling the energy challenges of data centers today and into the future. And we also concur with this opinion that there is no reason to wait. Significant energy savings, through the aggressive deployment of existing technologies, can and should be had today.
