on365 shortlisted for two DCS Awards 2011
on365 has been shortlisted for 2 prestigious Data Centre Solution Awards. The Data Centre Solutions Awards (DCS Awards) are a brand new set of end-user focused awards that reward the successful implementation of products and services by companies and teams that have made a significant contribution to their organisations' IT environment. A judging panel of respected UK editors and analysts validated entries and announced the 'Finalists' whose projects are now eligible for voting.
on365's project was for a large UK based co-location server hosting company who had taken practical steps to calculate power consumption levels within its managed service data centre. The objectives were to both reduce costs and power usage within the data centre to improve energy efficiency and tackle the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme’s compliance demands. In particular, the company wanted to know whether a more energy efficient solution would provide a positive return on investment (ROI) – and demonstrate ‘greener’ operations to its many corporate clients.
Having an established successful infrastructure management relationship with on365, the company wanted a solution that would meet these core objectives. The on365 team developed a solution and proposed a testing environment that would prove ROI based on statistical evidence of reduced energy consumption using operational data – something not done on this scale in the industry before.
The customer was interested in an approach to monitoring that could help improve data centre efficiency, simplify additional reporting requirements such as CRC EES compliance, and demonstrate the feasibility and business case for increasing the amount of server rack space that could be made available for customer use.
on365 was able to design and implement a service that enabled the customer to meet these needs through surveys, an installation monitoring service and assessments that would demonstrably reduce power consumption and overall costs.
After an initial review and design of a tailor made assessment to monitor the current energy consumption and level of efficiency, on365 provided an energy monitoring and server rack reconfiguration that would enable cost savings with an ROI in less than two years. The recommendations were built on quantifiable statistics – accessible by the customer and its corporate clients. Data was collated during a server room infrastructure measurement period of over a month that provides comparisons before, during and after the system implementation. This is the first infrastructure analysis and product ROI of its kind.
Following the system reconfiguration, the power consumption data proves system improvement and a business case for extra commercial rack space if required, in addition to support for continued monitoring. The investment in equipment and services for the energy efficiency monitoring and required alterations has delivered ROI in under two years.
Collectively, on365 provided an energy monitoring and server rack reconfiguration that will enable proven savings of over 15 per cent of the initial 151kW IT load per annum and over 15 per cent of the ACU power demand for the same load. A further five to eight per cent savings are expected next year – savings which are already being seen. This equates to 115 metric tonnes of carbon per annum, based on grid electricity supply – the equivalent of two short haul return air flights for 130 people. After the alterations were made, the room still maintains stable temperatures within the client’s existing Service Level Agreement (SLA). ROI will be delivered in less than two years.
On completing the fit-out, the server environment only required the use of six out of the original nine CRAC units to maintain stable air and rack temperatures, a near halving of the installed base, while retaining N 1 system reliability.
Overall, the customer now has the ability to closely monitor energy consumption and comply with SLAs in support of client operation, as well as tackle wider issues such as the CRC.
This project has been shortlisted for the following two categories:
Innovative Data Centre Project of the Year
For an end user organisation's highly innovative use of IT technology in a data centre delivering new and improved services within their UK based business. Find out more >>
Environmental Project of the Year
For any organisation's implementation of an environmentally-focussed data centre project in the UK that has a tangible environmental result. Find out more >>
