* Survey respondents cite heat or power density as biggest issue they face
Emerson Network Power recently rolled out survey results on data center capacity showing that more than 95% of data centers would be running at full capacity in five years.
The survey was run by the Data Center Users’ Group (DCUG), an Emerson Network Power formed group. It asked questions to DCUG members on a number of topics including power management, energy efficiency and consolidation.
Among results of the study, 40% of the survey’s 1,000 respondents said that heat or power density was the biggest issue they were facing. Nineteen percent cited space constraints; 8% cited adequate monitoring capabilities; and 7% cited that availability or uptime was a concern.
Over half of the respondents are either currently in the process of consolidating their data center or have completed consolidation. Another 18% said they are considering the option.
Forty two percent of respondents are looking at energy efficiency or have already analyzed it. They said that the greatest opportunities exist for energy efficiency in cooling equipment (49%), servers (46%), power equipment (39%) and storage gear (21%).
The results were presented by Bob Bauer, president of Liebert Worldwide, and an Emerson group vice president, at Emerson’s AdaptiveXchange 2006 meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
In a panel discussion titled “More Power, More Heat: An Industry-Wide Look at Heat Management,” moderated by Computerworld and featuring representatives from Sun, HP, Intel, Dell and IBM, panelists agreed that use of a 50 kW rack is possible but not inevitable. They also said that companies must employ adaptive data center design strategies to take advantage of higher efficiency and performance provided by increasing equipment density.
