SSD and Green IT moving beyond green washing
Keeping in mind that there is no such thing as a data or information recession, not to mention that people and data are living longer, there is the need to discuss expanding data footprints. When researching his new article over on SearchSolidstateStorage.com John Hilliard reached out to ask about SSD, Green IT, energy efficiency and effectiveness trends and perspectives (you can read the article and my comments here).
In the past when Green IT and Green storage was mentioned, discussions focused around energy avoidance along with space capacity reduction. While storage efficiency and optimization in the context of space-saving and capacity consolidation are part of Green storage, so too are storage IO consolidation with SSD. For inactive or less frequently accessed data, storage optimization and efficiency can focus on using various data footprint reduction techniques including archive, backup and data protection modernization, compression, dedupe, data management and deletion, along with storage tiering and thin provisioning among others.
On the other hand, for active data where performance is important, the focus expands to how to be more effective and boosting productivity with IO consolidation using SSD and other technologies.
Note that if your data center infrastructure is not efficient, then it is possible that for every watt of energy consumed, a watt (or more) of energy is needed to cool. However if your data center cooling is effective with a resulting low or good PUE, you may not be seeing a 1:1 watt or energy used for storage to cooling ratio as was more common a few years ago.
IMHO while reducing carbon footprints is a noble and good thing, however if that is your own focus or value proposition for a solution such as SSD or other Green technologies and techniques including data footprint reduction, you are missing many opportunities.
Have a read of John’s article that includes some of my comments on energy efficiency and effectiveness to support enhanced productivity, or the other aspect of Green IT being economic enabling to avoid missed opportunities.
Where to learn more
Various IT industry vendor and service provider links
Green and Virtual Data Center Primer
Green and Virtual Data Center links
Green IT Confusion Continues, Opportunities Missed!
Green IT deferral blamed on economic recession might be result of green gap
Supporting IT growth demand during economic uncertain times
Industry trend: People plus data are aging and living longer
Are large storage arrays dead at the hands of SSD?
EPA Energy Star for data center storage draft 3 specification
How much SSD do you need vs. want?
More storage and IO metrics that matter
What is the best kind of IO? The one you do not have to do
Speaking of speeding up business with SSD storage
Ok, nuff said for now
Cheers Gs
Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press, 2011), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press, 2009), and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier, 2004)
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