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June 24, 2009

A call to arms: IT must prepare for datacenter regulation

Datacenter operators must unite to prevent senseless regulations limiting CO2 emissions

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Green IT has flourished in datacenters across the United States and beyond over the past couple of years, driven primarily by organizations' desire to cut costs on energy, cooling, new hardware investments, and facility expansion or construction projects. A new driver for honing datacenter efficiency is now looming, however, and datacenter operators should pay heed: Governmental regulation is coming, and the industry needs to prepare.

Such is the argument laid out by Mike Manos, senior vice president of technical services at Digital Realty Trust. Manos -- formerly the general manager of Microsoft's datacenter division -- argues in his blog that political leaders will soon shine a legislative spotlight on datacenters in the name of reducing carbon dioxide emissions to prevent global warming. "Whether you view this to be a good thing or bad thing, it's something that you and your company are going to have to start planning for very shortly. This is no longer a drill," he cautions.

[ Learn why and how IT can prepare for forthcoming carbon regulations. ]

Moreover, Manos makes the case that datacenter operators need to get involved now in helping develop the aforementioned regulation, unless pencil-pushers who don't understand datacenters crank out unreasonable or unsuitable rules.

Already we've seen governmental bodies paying special attention to the technology industry -- specifically datacenters. Manos points to the United Kingdom's Carbon Reduction Commitment, introduced as part of the Climate Change Act 2008. "The main purpose of the CRC is a mandatory carbon reduction and energy efficiency scheme aimed at changing energy use behaviors and further [incentivizing] the adoption of technology and infrastructure," Manos writes. "While not specifically aimed at datacenters (it's aimed at everyone), you can see that by its definition, datacenters will be significantly affected."

U.K. organizations can expect a carbon cap-and-trade system to be implemented in 2010. They'll face limits on how much CO2 they can emit. Companies that are able to produce fewer emissions than they're allowed will be able to sell their extra CO2 emissions permits to companies that can't keep their emissions within bounds. Organizations that fail to comply face fines (not to mention bad PR).

Why do datacenter managers specifically need to take heed? Organizations that consumed more than 6,000 MWh (megawatt hours) in 2008 need to participate in the program, and as significant consumers of energy, datacenters will not escape scrutiny.

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WiredGuy 24-Jun-09 9:55am
I just had to chuckle - The sky is NOT falling - There will be no CO2 emission regulation placed on any data center in the United States. Data centers do not emit CO2 or any gas that I am aware of. Leave your guns in the cabinet, there is nothing to this rumor. P.S. The government is NOT going to replace the dollar with the "Amero" - No one in Nigeria will send you millions of dollars if you only give them your checking account information - Big Foot, the giant shaggy man/beast is just a myth.
mmanos 24-Jun-09 11:19am
WiredGuy - Keep your eyes closed. If you think that the Obama Adminstration and other governments are not committed to Carbon reduction initiatives, you really need to do a bit of reading and the list of policy initiatives he is dedicated to pursuing. While I agree that there will be no TARGETED Data Center initiatives, you are a fool if you think that companies arent going to be targeted. The CRC in the UK has definition of 6000Mwhs of consumption. Even small data centers would be huge contributors inside a company to that target. The CRC is the first (and despite your comment that there is nothing to the rumor) it goes live in a few years and the first year of tracking is 2008. It will become the poster child legislation by which other governments will follow. Whether its 6000, 2000 or 8000 mwhs you can bet you will see like legislation. You are correct in that data centers dont emit CO2, but the generation of the power they consume does. Before blindly commenting on how data centers would be affected you should read the docs that Ted links to understand how driving energy reductions would lead to CO2 reduction credits. Or you can keep your blinders on. \Mm
WiredGuy 24-Jun-09 3:22pm
mmanos - Thanks for the warning, but I'm not a fool. I am more aware than most. Are you aware of what just happened with the Waxman-Markey bill? In order to get the thing out of committee, they had to exempt all ethanol, and any other bio-fuel production from regulation, even then, it just barely made it out. There is a vote in the House scheduled for Friday (call your Congressman). A simple majority is required for it to pass. It probably will. This bill will NOT make it through the Senate -- not looking anything like it does now. Every Republican will vote against this legislation. Even well known "green" Democrats (Brown, Bayh, and Bingaman) are thought to oppose this bill -- and 60 votes are required to pass it. Trust me, this one is dead. Things are very different in the UK, I agree, but even there, no one is sure that the CRC will be adhered to by any but the largest electricity generation companies. Even requests for paperwork from "participants" hasn't happened yet. I have many contacts in the UK, but none of them have electricity bills of $1Million or more (that's the floor to be included in CRC participation) so I don't know how many trees you'd have to plant in Brazil to offset the CO2 your generating plant emits. Once again, that's England. With the Tories gaining power, the whole thing could be abandoned before it ever gets started. If you are like most IT people, you are already greener with every server you purchase. You don't need "cap and trade" legislation, you just do it to save money. Cheers.
BigRonG 29-Jun-09 7:39am
It would make it easier if we could separate the 'religous' and 'practical' Greenies. The religious types would gladly have us back in the 1930s believing that mankind is a 'virus' on the face of the earth. The practical types who responsibly would like to trim pollution are overwhelmed by the rhetoric and radical proposals of the religious types. Life is a balancing act - which involves responsibility. No doubt the U.S. is the poster child for 'greed' while at the same time feeding the world and leading in innovation. Destroying the greed culture and starving the world doesn't seem like a good trade to me. So working towards responsibility in corporate IT is good. Recognizing the off-hours needs of corporate IT (you cannot just turn all those computers off unless you can remotely turn them back on) and the need for efficient computers (no corporation can afford to 'blanket' replace its computers) means appropriate tax relief and incentives. Unless of course we need to raise taxes to support other items (anyone thinking 'healthcare'?) and then the whole thing collapses. Progress is better made with a scapel than a baseball bat IMHO.
Michelle Hazelton 3-Sep-09 12:18am
It’s not just about reconfiguring your data center to reduce your cooling requirements, granted there is huge saving to be made by implementing best practice (i.e. hot aisle, cold aisle setup). There is also potential to reduce energy consumption and waste through increased visibility. Using software to identify what your physical and virtual servers is actually doing can help improve data center manageability and reduce waste in terms of energy consumption, cooling, licensing and management costs. It is also worth mentioning that it is not always necessary to replace equipment with the latest and greatest in energy efficient kit. There are low cost quick wins which can be achieved by utilizing your existing equipment more efficiently. 1E are currently developing a solution to address these problems. Read about NightWatchman Server on the 1E blog: http://www.1e.com/blogs

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