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Gartner Says Energy-Related Costs Account for Approximately 12 Per Cent of Overall Data Centre Expenditures

.2010 – Energy-related costs account for approximately 12 per cent of overall data centre expenditure and are the fastest-rising cost in the data centre, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts said that data centre power, cooling and energy supply, and cost problems are likely to worsen during the next few years as organisations grow their technology infrastructure as they emerge from a recessionary period.
“With upwards of 5 per cent growth for server shipments predicted per year over the next two years, organisations need to forcefully control their energy consumption and costs,” said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. “To do this, data centre operators need to measure energy-related data across the whole site, including the building, the facility-s components and the IT equipment portfolio.”
Gartner analysts said continuous power utilisation efficiency (PUE) readings will become the norm for most large data centres, and by 2015, 80 per cent of new large data centres will report continuous PUE readings across the data centre.
“However, despite the wide availability of measurement tools, experts and consultants on the topic, data centre operators struggle with the best place to measure the energy in their data centres,” said Mr Kumar. “What is needed is a breakdown of the ideal approach to data centre energy management into a pragmatic approach that will provide sufficient information for most operational planning purposes.”
To get a comprehensive, accurate and real-time record of the energy used in data centres, users need to measure across six areas: building, electrical facilities, building facilities, racks, IT hardware and virtual machines (VMs). By measuring across these areas, data centre operators can obtain a highly detailed, comprehensive and, in most cases, a real-time usage picture of the energy that is being consumed across the whole site.
Gartner recommends developing a pragmatic approach to data centre management, whereby the six areas are prioritised and divided into three main segments.
“Energy management across IT hardware, racks and electrical facilities should be tackled immediately, while measurements across data centre building facilities and buildings will be necessary mainly for hosting providers that want to charge customers specifically for energy usage,” Mr Kumar said. “Measurement across VMs will happen during the next four or more years, becoming relevant when users want to examine the energy associated with a workload and when that workload is running in a separate VM.”
Additional information is available in the report “How to Measure Energy Consumption in Your Data Center” which is available on Gartner-s website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1433244.
Additional information on data centre technology will be discussed at the Gartner Data Center & IT Operations Summit 2010, 22-23 November in London. The event delivers a wealth of strategic guidance and tactical recommendations on the full spectrum of issues reshaping the 21st-century data centre.
Members of the media wishing to register for the Gartner Data Center & IT Operations Summit in London can register by contacting Ben Tudor, Gartner PR at ben.tudor@gartner.com. For further information on the Summit, please visit www.europe.gartner.com/datacenter.
Additional information from the event will be shared on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Gartner_inc and using #GartnerDC.

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world-s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 10,800 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,300 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.