Different Types of Work

It’s not a clean comparison at this point partly because servers are sized differently to do different types of work. Energy Star program officials are working with the server community to find the best way to make better, more direct comparisons between different servers. They’re hoping the second version of the program will start to do that. But, even now, Energy Star servers will be, in general, more energy efficient than non-Energy Star servers, and the fact that they’re more efficient in an idle state is important, because many servers are idle for a good portion of the time.

The current Energy Star requirement “is making sure the power supply itself is efficient, but it doesn’t focus on the server overall. What it doesn’t tell you today is what type of workload you can do for each unit of energy consumed,” says Austin Hipes, Director of Field Engineering at Network Engines, an appliance maker.

Instead, the Energy Star server specifications primarily measure whether a server’s power supply has good efficiency across a range of workloads, Hipes explains.

That’s not to downplay the importance of that information. That kind of efficiency, Hipes says, means that the server’s power supply uses a significant portion of the energy it takes from the grid rather than losing a lot of it in the form of heat. (Heat is a big issue in datacenters, because, generally speaking, the hotter the facility the more air conditioning is required to keep servers cool. There has been some counter-intuitive thinking about this in recent years, however.)

The EPA has been working on these server specifications for several years, says Andrew Fanara, an Energy Star program manager in Seattle. Concerned about datacenters’ growing energy requirements, the EPA wanted to bring the Energy Star program to servers as a way to raise users’ consciousness about the issue, Fanara says.

“We wanted to take the platform and standardize the information, to unlock some of that transparency, so people who buy servers, whether they buy one or two at a time or they buy them by the hundreds or thousands each year, can all benefit from what we’re doing,” Fanara says. It’s also designed to give buyers an “apples-to-apples comparison between servers,” he adds.

Performance & Reliability

The Energy Star designation is of interest to PricewaterhouseCoopers, says John Regan, Director of Datacenter Services at the New York-based accounting and professional services firm.

“We’re constantly looking at energy consumption, at the rack level, at the overall level of the datacenter, because everybody is conscious about being a good steward for the environment,” says Regan, noting that PwC is focusing on how to improve energy efficiency at an 80,000-square-foot datacenter that it’s planning to open this fall.

But energy efficiency is just one part of how users select servers; they also must consider performance and reliability, he adds. Jill Eckhaus, CEO of AFCOM, an association of datacenter professionals, agrees. Datacenter managers will look for Energy Star certification as part of overall corporate green initiatives, but if the server doesn’t do the job required, that label won’t help close a sale, she says.

Eckhaus also questions whether the Energy Star program will get much traction right now, in this down economy. A year ago, datacenter managers might have been willing to invest in servers to get more energy efficiency, she says. “Now they’re working with what they have.”

Slowing Server Sales

Doug Washburn, an analyst at Forrester Research, also sees limited immediate impact for the Energy Star label.

“Buying an Energy Star server can help reduce power consumption. And from a perspective of greening IT, this will certainly help with awareness,” he says. But most IT shops aren’t investing in new equipment right now, he adds.

Moreover, many IT shops still need to implement the basic operational improvements that often cost little yet yield big savings in energy consumption, Washburn says. Those improvements include better utilization of existing servers; studies have found that as much as 30 percent of a typical datacenter’s servers are nearly always in an idle state, he says.

Still, Energy Star ratings will have some sway with enterprise IT managers, according to Washburn. Citing discussions he’s had with clients, he says, “They will go with more energy efficiency if all other things are equal — even if it’s a little more expensive.”

That’s the kind of movement the EPA wants to see, Fanara says.

Next-gen Specs on Tap

Additionally, the program is meant to encourage manufacturers to strive to develop more efficient equipment in a quest to earn the Energy Star label, Fanara says. Because US agencies, some foreign governments, and many private organizations, often require vendors to provide Energy Star equipment when available, the label can be a powerful marketing incentive, he adds.

“If we succeed with our goals, we will have transformed the industry in a couple of years,” Fanara says. However, Fanara acknowledges that the initial server specifications, called Tier 1, don’t cover all energy measurements.

The challenge is in measuring efficiency in all servers, says Richard McCormack, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Fujitsu America. “There are a lot of ways to measure them and what they’re doing. There’s no single benchmark to cover everything, but I’m certainly a fan of coming up with something we can all look for,” he says.

The next set of specs, called Tier 2, will identify servers that drive up productivity — the EPA is working on how to measure that — while reducing power consumption, Fanara says. The EPA expects to have Tier 2 specs, which would apply to more servers as well as measure server efficiency in more detail, ready for a 2010-end launch, Fanara says.

In the meantime, vendors said they’re reviewing the final Tier 1 specs and are selecting which products they expect can meet those standards to earn that designation.

Features that earn a Star

Servers can earn the Energy Star rating by offering the following features:

•    Efficient power supplies that limit power conversion losses and generate less waste heat
•    Improved power quality
•    Capabilities to measure real time power use, processor utilization, and air temperature
•    Advanced power management features and efficient components to save energy across various operating states, including idle

ENERGY STAR? SO WHAT?

Though the industry has been touting its green credentials for the past few quarters, it is yet to make a dent in the Indian market. While most agree that ‘green’ is now a factor being considered when companies get into the purchase mode, it is the savings that greening offers in terms of power consumption and reduced heat emissions that appeal to the users rather than its impact on the environment.

“Though they value this proposition, this doesn’t make a real difference when it comes to decision making. It can be considered as an additional feature when marketed but being green is not the highlight of the server. It is ultimately the specification requirement that will drive the sale,” says Jaspal Singh, CEO, SparX.

Girish Madhavan, Chairman of Quadsel, adds, “It is making a difference now, as the reduced power costs make it a valued proposition amongst organizations.”

One of the debatable factors is that since ever-so-popular blade servers are not yet rated under the Energy Star program, the method is considered somewhat flawed. Faisal Paul, Head, Enterprise Servers and Storage Marketing, HP India, gives it a spin of his own. He says, “Blades can also be constituted as green even if they don’t have the Energy Star label as they help in saving space, reduce power consumption in multiple ways, and control heat emissions. So though not really green by the Energy Star standards, they should be considered green as well because they drive down the cost of operations.”

Most agree, though, that as the power scarcity situation in the country rises, chances are that the sales of green servers will see an upturn. “When buying, organizations not only look at the capital investment but also the operational costs. And as power scarcity worsens, we expect to see complete acceptance of the green server,” opines Chandan Joshi, Technical Director, Vintech Electronic Systems.

—Tasneem Balapurwala