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As the Internet of Everything
adds increasing pressure on
Cloud
services,
software-
optimized power conversion
will realize valuable energy
savings to help operators keep
on top of costs
Introduction: Keeping Up
with the Data Deluge
The Internet of Everything (IoE)
will capture data continuously
from activities such as retail,
transportation,
infrastructure
management, manufacturing, mining,
food production, security and many
others. Figures from Cisco say a large
retail store collects about 10GB of
data per hour and transmits 1GB of
that to a data center. An automated
manufacturing site can generate
about 1TB of data per hour, of which
about 5GB may be stored, and a large
mining operation can generate up to
144TB per hour.
Cloud services will hold the key to
transforming the data collected into
useful information, but will face
enormous pressure to keep up with
the explosion in data received from
more and more IoE applications.
Energy is the most significant resource
consumed by the data centers at the
heart of today’s Cloud services. Over a
typical lifetime of three years, the cost
to power a server actually exceeds
the equipment purchase price. The
cost of running the cooling systems
vital to maintain a safe equipment-
operating temperature must also be
considered. The desire to minimize
these costs is a serious concern for
data center operators, and is driving
major industry trends such as siting
new data centers in cooler climates
and in locations close to plentiful
renewable sources of energy such as
hydroelectric plants. Current favored
locations include the US Pacific North
West and Scandinavia. Operators
are also looking to establish higher
acceptable maximum equipment
operating temperatures to save on
cooling costs.
However, at the same time as
determining better ways of handling
unwanted heat, operators recognize
the importance of treating the cause:
improving the overall energy efficiency
of data center equipment in order to
reduce operating costs as much as
possible.
Treating Cause as well as
Symptom
Change is in progress everywhere,
throughout servers, power supplies
and system-management software,
to maximize efficiency at every point.
Powering The Cloud for an Energy-
Efficient Internet of Everything
Mark Adams, CUI, Inc.
28 l New-Tech Magazine Europe