Transcripts

"Green Options"-Powering Down The Cost of Data Centers

JEFF YASTINE: Well, energy prices may be lower now than they were six months ago, but many companies are still looking at ways to cut power costs. And that's especially true for data centers or server farms, where thousands of computers work together in one space. All of those machines storing corporate data and running Web sites run up a big power bill. Well, in tonight's "Green Options," we look at how companies are trying to power-down those costs. You could say that behind every great Web site is a computer server. Put hundreds of those servers together in one building, and you have a data center. Those centers keep stored information safe, and keep Web sites running online, all the time. And that eats up electricity by the megawatt, says Ben Stewart, senior V.P. of facilities engineering at Miami-based Terremark, a global data center operator.

BEN STEWART, SENIOR V.P. FACILITIES ENGINEERING, TERREMARK CORPORATION: Our power bill here in this facility is about $600,000 a month, and we're only about one-third built-out. So fully built-out we could be looking at $1.5 million to $2 million worth of utility charges in a month. So that's an awful lot of energy.

YASTINE: One of the reasons why power costs are so high? Well, you know how your laptop gets hot after you've been using it for a while? Well, think of thousands of laptops in one room running all the time, and then think of all of the air-conditioning it would take to keep all of those laptops from overheating. Well, that's the challenge for Stewart and other engineers. One solution: using a "hot aisle-cold aisle" system to help control A.C. costs.

STEWART: You want to deliver your cold air only to where you need cold air, and that's at the front of the equipment. Over here, we're not delivering any cold air at all because there's nothing to cool here. We're only delivering our cool air where there is equipment that needs to be cooled.

YASTINE: The energy demands of data centers are large and growing. Rhett Dawson of the Information Technology Industry Council says the challenge is squeezing every kilowatt of power for maximum efficiency.

RHETT DAWSON, PRES. & CEO, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY COUNCIL: You only get about 30 percent of the power actually efficiently applied to producing computing power. And if -- that's a rich target.

YASTINE: Some of the industry's leading players are paying attention. In the past year Google (GOOG) has committed to using solar power for some of its servers, and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) is working on green data centers. Being efficient and green makes sense for an industry that already consumes about 1.5 percent of all of the power generated in the United States. Experts believe that figure will soon grow to 2.5 percent. And that means data center operators like Terremark will keep looking for ways to innovate, and become smarter energy consumers.