Throughout 2009, running out of power and space will prove a constant threat to data centres. Consolidating servers and becoming energy efficient is now not just a tick in the green computing box, but a necessity for any organisation that aims to minimise server downtime and failure, explains Mike Vinten, CEO, Thesaurus http: www.i-tcs.com

Debate over the impending capacity and energy crisis is intensifying in the data centre industry. As data centres fill with increasingly demanding hardware and cooling systems, the energy crisis looms large and will impact upon many locations in the UK and across Europe. Despite a recent survey from HP http: www.hp.com hpinfo newsroom press 2008 081218a.html?jumpid reg R1002 USEN claiming that 60 per cent of CIOs will initiate a green IT project in 2009 , the issue still is not top of the corporate agenda.

Capacity is at such a high level, not enough energy can physically be supplied to servers and the cooling systems required to keep them operating. This lack of power will undoubtedly lead to more instances of downtime and data centre failure a large-scale failure that could prove cataclysmic for many organisations.

Companies can plan for the energy crisis now by decommissioning older, power-hungry servers that are only partially utilised and consolidate http: www.i-tcs.com infrastructure services server.html workloads elsewhere. Virtualisation, a buzzword throughout 2008, can solve a large percentage of the problem. In comparison, physical rather than virtual servers http: www.i-tcs.com technology ibm.html require 10 times more rack space and subsequently significantly more energy in terms of power, along with the cooling and necessary backup generators for failover.

Having effective failover technologies is also an important part of minimising server downtime because of power disruption. Some companies may even have a secondary data centre http: www.i-tcs.com managed services hosting.html altogether, however this must be set out correctly to ensure effective operation.

Secondary data centres are often located within the same electrical grid as its primary counterpart, therefore exposed to experiencing the same power issues and environmental factors. We ve even seen a back up data centre which is situated just across the Thames from the primary site, a very risky situation in which to put any company s data, continues Vinten.

When positioning a secondary data centre, it should be located as far away as possible as the primary data centre, at least over 20 miles. Currently the best places to locate these are outside densely populated areas because of the lower electricity demands per grid.