Where would we be without data centers? A mostly unseen infrastructure of servers and fiber-optic cables, data centers provide us with the tools for a modern world. Those Google maps directions, those Facebook updates, those paperless banking statements: Just about everything we do nowadays has an online component, and all that virtual reality requires computing power . . . lots and lots of computing power. And with the energy demand and costs associated with keeping all those servers running smoothly, data centers are often the earliest adopters of energy-efficient technologies and procedures. Now it looks like the greatest gains in efficiency and demand reduction can be found in the Cloud.
For the uninitiated, the Cloud refers to Cloud Computing, described in Wikipedia as “Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand.”
For the consumer, the Cloud is the place where your Google docs or flickr photos reside—instead of using your hard drive as a final storage destination, your data is saved in a remote location, accessible from any Web-enabled device from anywhere in the world. For the data center industry, cloud computing has offered a viable alternative to traditional data center operations, and now—thanks to a recent report from Pike Research—the Cloud offers significant energy savings as well.
Pike Research acknowledges the shift towards cloud computing, a shift the report anticipates will continue to grow worldwide between now and 2015 “at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.8%, with the market increasing from $46.0 billion in 2009, to $210.3 billion by 2015.” With that growth comes opportunity. Pike predicts that as cloud computing becomes more widespread, we can anticipate a 38% reduction in data center energy costs by 2020.
Some other relevant details from the report:
Data centers will consume 139.8 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2020, a reduction of 31% from 201.8 TWh in 2010.
- This also represents a significant decrease from the 226.4 TWh that would be consumed by data centers in the firm’s BAU scenario.
- The reduction will drive total data center energy expenditures down from \•3.3 billion in 2010 to \ 6.0 billion in 2020, as well as causing a 28% reduction in GHG emissions from 2010 levels.
So what do you think? Will these significant energy savings spur an even faster adoption of cloud computing? What demand control techniques and lessons can we learn from cloud computing that we can transfer over to planning and implementation of a smarter grid? And what role can energy management and onsite power play in cloud computing and global clean technologies as a whole?