Data Center Efficiency is a flexible term originally used to characterize the efficient use of energy in a Data Center. But over the years, the usage of this term has expanded to other entities such as storage, accessibility, security, networks and IT assets. Every Data Center around the world is focused on increasing its efficiency. And here are the top five things for Data Center efficiency that further enable you to drive costs out of your IT infrastructure.
Improve energy efficiency
Energy is the core of every Data Center. Power and thermal management give you a long-term strategic advantage. Cooling the equipment is indispensable and that requires a lot of power. But if you use a containment system, you may be able to reduce energy usage by 8-10 percent. And if you are yet to decide on a location, consider a place with a moderate climate, which may give you some advantage over operating a full-fledged HVAC system. You can also switch to hardware that are faster and require less power such as SSDs over hard-disk drives.
Focus on storage and capacity
Rapid data growth fuels the increasing demand for capacity storage in Data Center. And while it’s a challenge for Data Center management, it is not feasible to purchase new storage solutions every time, given the ever-increasing data. You will have to take the do-more-with-less approach to avoid the high cost of ownership. At this point, you can benefit from adopting performance analytics software. You must also monitor devices, troubleshoot drives and improve drive management processes to make sure that drives are working optimally and identify potential issues well before they affect processes.
Enhance data security
Data security is the nerve center and with the recent high-profile security breaches, it has become top priority for the management. It is imperative to improve comprehensive security measures. Data security needs vary from one organization to another and you should employ encryption for data as per your organizational needs.
Consider virtualization
With virtualization, you can bundle numerous data and computing processes into a smaller footprint, which leads to reducing life-cycle cost and adding efficiency. Virtualization means your data will require less space and power. You can replace large physical servers with a few machines that run numerous Virtual Machines (VMs), which can also serve your storage needs with virtual disks. Virtualization will ensure a modular infrastructure that incorporates networking, storage and servers on a single computing platform.
Strategies for avoiding disaster
Coming up with strategies to avoid disasters may not seem like much but in the long run, it adds to the efficiency of your Data Center. There is a growing threat of common natural and man-made disasters and planning to overcome possible failures is a priority for organizations. Locations, building designs, power standards and alternative recovery locations are the focus to avoid issues post disaster.
