The Green Data Center
Continued
Storage consolidation is really important, although equally essential to reducing energy consumption is ensuring companies have streamlined their applications and data. Duplicated data and applications is a major problem in many organizations and these cause a range of operational inefficiencies, including demand for more storage space. Most companies know that at the data and applications levels they are far from efficient, but the problem has been that the risk, cost and time to consolidate applications has put them off. Celona recently conducted a survey amongst telecoms executives and 59% said they'd been so discouraged by an application migration that they decided not to go ahead with it. The new-generation of migration technology overcomes these problems, making the long-awaited benefits of application consolidation a reality.
Many vendors have cottoned on to the fact that there is a sea change in the air, and this is not the oceanic smell of green altruism – there is a distinct whiff of hard business reality about it. "Environmental sentiment is all well and good, and it helps that environmental issues currently enjoy a high media profile, but few companies have the financial freedom to go green overnight" says Simon Sherrington. "They simply can't justify decommissioning equipment unless there is a clear cost benefit in terms of saved opex, or unless the kit is becoming obsolete anyway. That is why companies with comparatively high energy costs, and companies in markets with high rates of technology obsolescence, have been swifter out of the blocks than peers in other industry sectors."
BT is just such a company, being a major energy consumer and operating in a highly competitive market. It has already cut its carbon emissions by 60% since 1996, saving more than one million tonnes of CO2 per annum. This drive extends from data centres to applications-level consolidation. BT's One IT consolidation project, and similar projects in other large operators, is all about delivering business benefits. There are huge opportunities within large Telco's to consolidate IT infrastructure and thereby enhance efficiency, which should deliver the ability to bring new services to market more quickly, but also savings in terms of both cash and carbon.
This point is underlined by BT's Steve O'Donnell who comments that to date One IT has enabled BT to decommission and consolidate over 1000 racks of servers, resulting in a net saving of 22GW hours per year. "We calculate this translates to a cost saving of just under £1.8 million per annum or around 3,110 metric tonnes of carbon per year," says O'Donnell.
BT is using its supply chain to drive change by incorporating environmental and efficiency goals into its procurement process. It expects suppliers to work to reduce the energy consumption and impact of each new generation of products or services, and this will become a mandatory criterion in all tender adjudication. Donna Young, BT's head of Climate Change, notes that the extended supply chain is a powerful force for positive change. "About three years ago our large business customers started coming to us and asking about our carbon status. They understand the need to drive efficiency down their own supply chains. The power of the supply chain, and of competition, to drive this sort of change should not be underestimated."
Notes:
*Celona's survey was conducted in May 2007 amongst 212 telecoms IT professionals (see www.celona.com).
* ONstor's survey was conducted across 440 companies between July and August 2007 (see www.onstor.com).
Tony Sceales is CEO of Celona Technologies.
About Celona Technologies -
www.celona.com
Celona is the leading provider of Application Data Migration software specifically developed for Communication Service Providers (CSPs). Celona Evolve is an integrated software platform comprehensively solving the application data migration challenge for large and complex operations – the only built-for-purpose product of its kind.
Operators can dramatically lower the risk and timescales traditionally attached to data migration activities by making use of Celona's technology.
Headquartered in London, and with offices in mainland Europe and Asia-Pacific, Celona was founded in 1997 and is privately held.
