Library & Tools

During this session, CSCI will review recent activities associated with the program goals as well as planned technical activities for 2010. In addition, the talk will address opportunities for synergy and collaboration between CSCI and TGG.

The energy savings gained from server and storage virtualization and consolidation can be further maximized if data center managers adjust their power and cooling infrastructure to accommodate the reduced loads. The cycle of initial reduced load followed by load growth should incorporate adjustments to power and cooling. This presentation examines several approaches for efficiently cooling consolidated loads.

In this session, representatives from the Advisory Council will share the readout results of the 2009 BOF session and provide the updated "top 10" from Data Center Pulse. Additionally, Data Center Pulse’s "Chill Off 3", an industry test comparing efficiencies of different cooling products in the data center will be introduced to forum attendees.

ENERGY STAR is a government program designed to help businesses and organizations save energy and fight global warming with superior energy efficiency. This session will provide a brief introduction of the ENERGY STAR program offerings for commercial and industrial organizations, including the new rating system for data centers.

This session will review the work performed to assess an EPA data center in Washington, D.C., the results of that assessment, and the challenges and opportunities for this type of an installation. Many of the lessons learned by both the EPA and the assessment team will be shared.

The Green Grid free cooling map and web tool was introduced at the 2009 Technical Forum with a promise that suggestions for enhancements were welcome and would be enacted. This year, The Green Grid free cooling maps and tools have been updated to include maps of Europe and Japan, and the web tool has been enhanced to include common practices in economization, such as return air mixing and humidification. The Power Configuration Efficiency Estimator presentation is the first introduction of the tool to general users and will touch on the major features of the tool.

During this session, representatives from the United States Department of Energy, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the European Union Commission will discuss not only the current status of regulatory and legislative initiatives focusing on data center efficiency, but potential near-term future implications as well.

This session will present a brief overview of the first online tools and other tools available in the industry as background for an interactive discussion on where The Green Grid’s Technical Committee should focus tool-related efforts in 2010. The discussion will include not only facility-related issues, but also how best to provide guidance to individuals and groups responsible for IT decisions that affect power consumption and energy efficiency.

Last year, The Green Grid introduced the concept of measuring data center productivity through the use of proxies: simplified metrics that closely indicate the amount of real work done in data centers without the expense and difficulty of measuring work directly. This year, results of the feedback surveys are analyzed, progress on the metrics is discussed, and directions for the coming year are explained.

Power & Cooling, and by association energy efficiency, are widely accepted as the top concerns of many data center owners/operators today. As a result, there is an industry-wide push to improve data center energy efficiency.