A new survey suggests that large data centers might be less energy efficient than was previously thought.
The survey, by data center hosting vendor Digital Realty Trust, quizzed 300 IT decision makers at large corporations in North America, each with annual revenue of at least US$1 billion or with at least 5,000 employees.
The results revealed an average PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) score of 2.9. PUE is a measure of data center efficiency, and lower scores are better. Ideal scores are close to 1.0, and previous surveys conducted by others have estimated the average to be closer to 2.0.
PUE is only one way of measuring energy efficiency and there's no standardized way of calculating it, so the finding isn't necessarily dire.
The Uptime Institute, in a survey last year of 1,100 data center users, reported an average PUE of 1.8 to 1.89. That was an improvement over 2.5 in its 2007 survey. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2009, reportedly put the average PUE at 1.91.
Large online firms such as Google and Microsoft have boasted of PUEs of close to 1.0, but they're special cases. Many of the data centers they operate are new, and they invest heavily in IT efficiency, since it affects so much of their overall operating costs.
"While a PUE of 2.9 seems terribly inefficient, we view it as more being closer to the norm than the extremely low (close to 1) figures reported in the media," said Jim Smith, Digital Realty's CTO, via email. "In our view, those [lower] figures represent what a very small number of organizations can achieve based on a unique operating model."
Other survey results: 20% of respondents reported having a PUE of less than 2.0, while 9% had a PUE of 4.0 or greater.
PUE looks at the total energy supplied to a data center, divided by the amount of energy that actually reaches the IT equipment. It reveals how much energy is expended on cooling systems and other noncompute functions. A PUE of 2.0 means that for every 2 watts supplied to the data center, only 1 watt reaches the computing equipment.
The results from this week's survey can be attributed to older designs and equipment, under-utilized assets and other design and operating issues, Smith said.
There are other factors, too. The figures reported "reinforce the fact that IT is not easy. Designing data center operations around an organization's infrastructure and operations is not a simple task," he said.
The main focus for many data centers is making sure that services remain available, he added. That can mean installing redundant equipment, which creates inefficiency.
