Business Continuity Planning for Data Centers and Systems: A Strategic Implementation Guide

Chapter 13. Going Green

The green data center is somewhat of an oxymoron. It is currently taking first place for white paper content and seminars, eclipsing the blade server, high density, hot aisle, cold aisle, and urgent and mandatory meetings. Today, the low energy electron diffraction (LEED) topics of economic and good corporate and ecological interest are growing in visibility to a point where the economic challenges and short-term inefficiencies are worthwhile and being implemented.

The challenges are fairly obvious. Currently deployed equipment and static solutions for a data center demand increase the inefficiencies of power from the transmission line or substation to the cabinet. The 65 to 75% of waste is generally in the form of heat—effectively the exhaust of the manipulation of electrical current. Then comes the inefficient cooling requirements to satisfy the inefficient power and to stock all the mission-critical gear to service same.

LEED solutions are found in a minority of the footprint in the office and storage components. Painting the roof white and putting in bike racks are easy to do. Waterless urinals, new commodes, radio-frequency sinks, and "scrubbers" on mufflers are a bit more expensive but much more costly to retrofit if the municipality chooses to mandate lower levels on emissions. The waste product of the scrubber or high-penetration filtration system needs to be owned and maintained, but it is the right thing to do as a good corporate citizen and financially ...