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More and more corporate customers in the market for data center services want to know "what kind of green technology we are employing," said Joe Dzaluk, vice president for global infrastructure at the technology giant.
The answer from IBM: Outside air will cool the data center about half the year. Sensors monitor temperature and humidity, and adjust cooling accordingly. Rainwater is collected for reuse. Backup generators use low-sulfur fuels to reduce emissions.
The center is seeking a gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating. And much more.
Marketing and being good corporate citizens aren't the only reasons that the new data centers popping up across the Triangle are going green.
Data centers, which run a company's internal functions or are profit centers that sell services to customers who prefer to outsource, require a huge amount of electricity. So reducing consumption means huge savings.
"It's all about energy efficiency," said analyst David Cappuccio, chief of research for infrastructures at Gartner. "That's the mantra of data centers."
Cappuccio calls IBM's new center "as close to state-of-the-art as I have seen." IBM is one of the Triangle's largest employers, with about 10,000 workers.
A 20,000-square-foot data center - a fifth the size of what IBM's new center will ultimately encompass - can consume $5.2 million worth of electricity a year when operating at full capacity, Cappuccio said.
Big new data centers have been spreading like computer viruses in the Triangle.
"The need for IT centers continues to grow, even in a down economy," Cappuccio said.
Among the Triangle's large new data centers:
NetApp: The data storage company opened a $65 million data center and product development lab in Research Triangle Park last year. Mark Skiff, senior director of workplace resources for East Coast operations, said the data center, which is for internal use, saves $7 million in annual energy costs thanks to its green design.
EMC: The No. 1 maker of data-storage computers is building a $280 million data center in Durham County that will initially support the company's operations. "Green means green," said Bob Hawkins, vice president of North Carolina operations. "We can save money by installing a lot of green features."
SAS: The business software company is constructing a $70 million cloud computing center on its Cary campus that it expects to begin operating next year. The center, which is aiming for LEED certification, will serve customers who access SAS software remotely. "If you're not marketing [green], you are missing an opportunity," said Jerry Williams, environmental sustainability program manager.
IBM's new data center began operating in November but was officially dedicated Thursday afternoon at an orchestrated event that included Gov. Bev Perdue and attracted more than 400 onlookers.
Today the center occupies 60,000 square feet. But its modular design has been engineered so that it can quickly ramp up to 100,000 square feet featuring 1,200 racks of servers, each black metal rack 6 1/2 feet high. The center is run with a handful of employees.
IBM's new center hosts the company's global Web site, but its primary purpose is running data center operations for clients such as the U.S. Golf Association. Because IBM also designs data centers for companies that want to run their own in-house operations, the center will also serve as a showcase for prospective customers from around the world.
Perdue, noting that 1,000 people a year are expected to visit the center, jested that it was "a tourist attraction."
IBM's center will offer cloud computing services, which enable accessing networks of computers over the Internet.
By using technologies such as virtualization, which allows computer servers to be more efficient, cloud computing centers can save customers money, said Russ Klein, vice president of the technology resource group at Aberdeen Group.
Indeed, although companies talk a lot about wanting to be green, when they seek to outsource their data center operations the primary drivers are "cost, performance and functionality," Klein said. "Green is a nice-to-have."
Still, he said, given that data centers tend to be "pretty comparable," greenness is one way that companies can distinguish themselves from the competition.
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/321080.html
