Data centers house much technology. They consume energy, produce heat, and require constant cooling—and they’re substantial water consumers. Data center asset management is a way to ensure that you’re using resources wisely so that your data center runs efficiently and costs less without sacrificing performance.
This article will briefly explain the strategy and approach to asset management for green data centers.
Green data center asset management strategies
Data center asset management refers to the framework and procedures used to manage data center equipment and infrastructure. When done correctly, this process can ensure reliability, efficiency, and green data center capabilities.
Effective data center asset management enables a company to increase capacity without adding unneeded equipment and reduces the costs of upgrading existing systems by using best maintenance practices.
A good strategy for managing data center assets starts with a formal assessment of current resources using financial, environmental, and utilization metrics.
Green data center asset management strategy includes:
- Creating a green plan in your facility’s master plan.
- Utilizing asset management tools to track facility assets.
- Using technology to monitor and manage your assets.
- Applying green standards and assessments to guide revamping decisions.
- Using decommissioning strategies as part of your asset management program.
Some businesses have policies requiring specific computer hardware standards that consider energy efficiency, application performance, availability, serviceability, and total cost of ownership (TCO). These policies set guidelines for how new computers are deployed within the business.
Green data center asset management strategies should be developed to achieve long-term sustainability. The strategy should include the following components:
- Installation of energy-efficient devices and equipment,
- Usage of renewable energy sources,
- Assessment of environmental impact and reduction of it,
- Implementation of efficient management procedures (including resource optimization, capacity planning, and risk management),
- Development of effective communication with customers and other stakeholders,
- Establishment of an organizational culture that supports the strategy.
An agile approach to data center asset management
Data centers built from the ground up, or remodeled and expanded incrementally, will have limited flexibility in capitalizing on green technologies. An agile approach to asset management can help these data centers become more energy efficient.
In an agile approach to asset management, a company starts by evaluating its existing infrastructure and resources. By doing so, the company can identify areas of improvement and implement changes in its operations accordingly. This is one way a data center can be more energy efficient.
Lessons learned from other companies who have already implemented agile asset management strategies can also help a data center become more energy efficient.
For example, one company realized that by taking energy-efficient steps in its data center, such as changing a cooling system’s fan speeds, it could save $150,000 per year. Changes like this can be implemented in the data center relatively quickly compared to construction or renovation projects, so it helps an organization meet its goals sooner rather than later.
A positive side effect of agile asset management is that it can help companies identify additional ways to reduce their carbon footprint. In addition to making their data centers more energy efficient, companies might also find opportunities to reduce their carbon emissions by reducing paper consumption or using less fuel for transportation and shipping products.
Read more about Audit Checklist ISO 50001 for Green Data Center Industry.
Conclusion
A data center is a complex facility that requires regular, ongoing attention. The facility must be kept clean and organized, and the servers and other hardware must be monitored for potential problems. Often, this involves tracking individual items in a maze of cabinets and racks, which wastes time and can lead to a loss of crucial data if a server goes unmonitored for too long.
Some data center asset management strategies can be used to ensure long-term sustainability. Those strategies focus on monitoring the current state of critical assets and responding to any changes to prevent degradation or failure.
A better way to manage your data center is through an asset management approach focusing on three areas: inventory management, capacity management, and performance management. Inventory management determines what assets are currently deployed in your data center and how they are performing against their expected utilization levels; capacity management identifies where additional servers should be deployed to meet increased load demands; performance management tracks how resource demands are affecting application performance levels.