Space and power are the two major issues that affect data center operators. It’s seen that companies usually do not pay enough attention to the process of measuring, monitoring and modeling energy use in data centers. A Gartner (News - Alert) study suggested that the lack of accurate dashboards in data centers is causing wasted energy costs.

 

In California, a new executive order has been signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that aims to reduce energy usage in data centers. The order seeks to reduce the total amount of data center square footage currently utilized by state agencies by July 2010 by 25 percent. And, by July 2011, it stipulates reduction by 50 percent

 

“This action will increase transparency in spending, promote greater cost savings and define specific targets to reduce energy usage in our IT systems and further consolidate services,” said Gov. Schwarzenegger.

 

California state agencies operate around 400 data centers and server rooms, which cover 400,000 square feet of space and house over 9,500 servers. The new executive order has set in the motion the process of consolidating the data centers and server rooms that may result in the elimination of 100,000 square feet of data center space in less than five months. And, it aims to eliminate another 100,000 square feet by July 2011.

 

In addition, Schwarzenegger’s order also underlines the need to house applications in a Tier III or Tier IV data center, based on the Uptime Institute reliability scale.

 

After this decree, agencies are expected to migrate applications to a state-owned data center. However, state officials said that given the timetable, some workloads may move to third-party data centers, which might increase the demand for colocation and managed hosting services.

 

“The state will be using existing state Tier III data centers and may use private Tier III data centers to the extent it is necessary,” said Adrian Farley, chief deputy director for policy and program management for the Office of the Chief Information Officer.