Efficient Computing

Data Center Best Practices

There are many helpful resources to improve the efficiency performance of your facility; here are some tips from our experts.

Measure PUE. Know your data center's efficiency performance by measuring energy consumption and frequent PUE monitoring.

Manage air flow. Good air flow management is a fundamental to efficient data center operation. Start with minimizing hot and cold air mixing and eliminate hot spots.

Adjust the thermostat. Raising the cold aisle temperature will minimize chiller energy use. Don't try to run at 70F in the cold aisle, try to run at 80F; virtually all equipment manufacturers allow this.

Use free cooling. Water or air-side economizers can greatly improve energy efficiency.

Optimize power distribution.  Whenever possible use high-efficiency transformers and UPS systems.

Buy efficient servers. Specify high-efficient servers and data storage systems. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative offers resources to identify power-efficient servers.

Additionally, our own Luiz Andre Barroso and Urs Holzle penned "The Datacenter as a Computer: An Introduction into the Design of Warehouse-Scale Machines", one of several publications included in the Synthesis Lectures on Computer Architecture. The Data Center as a Computer is an excellent resource on a holistic design approach for the modern data center.