Green Computing Saves Money

Every year, the concepts of environmentally responsible computing and manufacturing grow a little more popular. More organizations want to be green and join in the quest to reduce carbon emissions and lessen the environmental impact of their businesses. And now, faced with the constraints of the global financial economic situation, organizations are looking for ways not only to protect the environment but also to protect themselves from unnecessary expenses.

Eco-friendly or 'sustainable' computing offers IT departments and planners the opportunity to make a significant impact on the health of the overall business by reducing short and long term expenses.

In the world of storage, data volumes continue to grow, as do requirements for storing that data for ever longer periods of time. Most data ages very fast and tends to get stored on older, less efficient media. This older storage technology requires more electricity to operate and has greater cooling requirements.

So while the capital costs of older equipment may not be significant, they can incur much higher operational costs. Thus, those power hungry older disk drives end up having a big impact on both the environment and on the cost of operating the data center. In contrast, newer, more energy efficient data drives reduce the demand for both power and cooling, while delivering better performance.

The Environmental Protection Agency predicts that power consumption in US data centers will double between 2006 and 2011 and necessitate the building of 10 new power plants. Green computing solutions can reduce the amount of energy going not only into running IT equipment but also into air conditioning and power feeding.

The end result is lower operational expenses for individual businesses, and a lesser need for large, expensive power plant projects funded by governments and municipalities. In these penny pinching times, any reduction in expenses helps. Green computing offers a logical starting place.

Five Steps to an Eco-friendly Data Center

Estimates show that storage accounts for 30 to 40 percent of the IT equipment power used in data centers – so in order to reduce power consumption, you've got to look at storage even though it’s not the major culprit. Here are five ways an organization can begin to reduce power consumption in their data centers: 

1. Reduce data center hot spots.
2. Implement virtualization strategies.
3. Consolidate storage.
4. Deploy services to help design the right infrastructure.
5. Investigate your vendor's environmental track record.

For more information on improving the energy efficiency of data centers,.

Spin Down Inactive RAID Groups for Cost and Energy Savings

Hitachi Power Savings Service, available with Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage and Hitachi Workgroup Modular Storage, enables companies to decrease their energy consumption, thus significantly reducing the cost of storing and delivering information. This technology allows administrators to spin down the volumes in any selected RAID group when they are not being accessed by a business application. Administrators can quickly spin the RAID group(s) back up
again when required.

Power Savings Service is particularly appealing to organizations with large amounts of archival data where the data is accessed infrequently or for a limited period of time. It is also very useful for RAID groups assigned for backups or for disk capacity that has been installed but has yet to be allocated. For more information on Power Savings Service, Click here.

The Hitachi Green IT Project

The Hitachi Information & Technology Systems Group (ITSG) companies are working on two projects that aim to reduce carbon emissions and power consumption. First, the IT Power Saving Plan will develop environmentally responsible products that will help reduce CO₂ emissions by 330,000 tons in the next five years.

Second, the Eco-Friendly Data Center Project aims to reduce power consumption in data centers by up to 50 percent of its 2007 levels by 2012. It will harness the principles of the IT Power Saving Plan in the creation of a green data center in Yokohama, Japan, with the lowest power usage index of any data center in its class.

Learn about it

 Analyst Report:
Hitachi High-Performance NAS Platform Provides a High Road to Consolidation by IT Centrix

 Overview Brochure:
Hitachi Universal Storage Platform More...

 Video:
Environmental Management in a Society that Recycles More...

 In the Blogs:
Wasted Space By Asim Zaheer, Vice President, Global Product and Competitive Marketing, Hitachi Data Systems More...

 Hitachi Data Systems Customer Reference Program
The Hitachi Data Systems Customer Connection Program is a reference program created to allow customers to share their Hitachi experiences and their achievements. The program is designed to reward Hitachi Data Systems customers and to allow them to share best practices with their peers in the industry.

Learn more about the Hitachi Data Systems Customer Connection Program by contacting your Hitachi Data Systems account manager or the Customer Reference team at CustomerReferenceProgram@hds.com.

 Training:
New virtual instructor-led Hitachi Data Systems Certification prep sessions!
The Hitachi Data Systems Academy is now offering virtual instructor led exam prep sessions. These virtual sessions will be offered in addition to the standard instructor-led events.

The sessions provide participants with refresher training on key areas of expertise for the Hitachi Data Systems Certified Professional (Foundations) credential. The sessions can serve as an introduction for customers new to Hitachi storage and for the seasoned student; the sessions provide a valuable review of Hitachi Data Systems infrastructure, products and technology. Contact hdscertifications@hds.com for more information.

 WebTech:
Hitachi Data Systems sponsors an ongoing webcast forum where customers can learn from Hitachi Data Systems experts. April seminars cover the use of Hitachi Tuning Manager software to monitor the performance of Microsoft® Exchange and Storage Economics in the real world. Learn more by clicking here More...

Storage Networking World Spring 2009, April 6-9, 2009, Rosen Shingle Creek, Orlando, FL
Storage Networking World - the world's largest and foremost storage networking event - is where IT management and professionals learn, network and maximize their company's storage capabilities. At SNW, you can choose from over 140 educational sessions and network with peers from around the globe-plus visit with top solutions providers in the world's largest Expo focused on storage. SNW's vast agenda makes it the most appealing and well-respected assembly of storage networking professionals in the world. More...

2009 Creative Storage Conference, April 19, 2009, Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada
Come to the one day Creative Storage to make valuable connections and to participate in the latest trends and requirements for digital storage to serve creative minds and create new and growing markets. The 2009 conference program will contain 5 sessions: Storage for Capturing Content, Storage for Content Editing and Post Production, Content Delivery and Digital Storage, Contact Archiving and New Roles and Models for Physical Distribution and an Entertainment and Media Users session. More...

Using Hitachi Tuning Manager to Monitor Microsoft Exchange Performance, April 15, 2009, 9am PST, online
Hitachi Tuning Manager software provides agents for monitoring and analyzing multiple applications from a single point of management. One of such agent is the Microsoft® Exchange® agent that can monitor performance data for Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007. It provides storage administrators with convenient and easy way to monitor the Exchange environment health for extent period of time without necessity to use specific Exchange Server management tools. More...

Interop, May 17-21, 2009, Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV
The Storage track will help explain how key storage and storage network technologies work together to drive your business. We have sessions that will appeal to the business executive, as well as sessions that are more technical and comprehensive for IT technical staff. Storage Application, Storage Technologies and Storage Networks will be the track's main focus. More...