The High-Performance Green Data Center: The Impetus to Change

While the current state of sustainability on the world stage and within the U.S. is quite tenuous, reinforced by a year marred by a series of distracting events, progress is being made. Notwithstanding these setbacks - the disappointing results of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark (with the negotiating language of "The Accord" now revised to facilitate continued deliberations in Bonn, Germany in preparation for COP 16 scheduled for Cancun, Mexico November 29–December 10, 2010); the recent firestorm over the validity of a few climate-change details found in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report; the hacked University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Climatic Research Unit (CRU) e-mail traffic, non-affectionately branded "Climategate"; the politically mired U.S. Senate environmental sustainability legislation of the Kerry–Lieberman clean energy and climate bill, described as the "The American Power Act," with election-year hopes for passage by November 2010 - global warming is occurring, and addressing issues of climate change remains in the forefront of many people’s minds.

Despite these challenges, there is much to be optimistic about. First, the negotiators from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are due back in Bonn, with more attainable expectations, for COP16. Next, the IPCC has corrected the two mistakes - the percentage of the Netherlands under water and the projected date that the Himalayan glaciers would melt away - and, through independent investigations, Penn State was the third scientific body to exonerate the three "Climategate" scientists of any wrongdoing. Next, encouraged by the Waxman–Markey climate and energy bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2009, as well as both U.S. executive orders, it is almost certain that 2010 and 2011 will be important milestones in the quest for environmentally benign and sustainable operations1; EO 13423 (Strengthening Federal Environment, Energy and Transportation Management mandates sustainable design and construction for all new construction and major renovation projects) and EO 13514 (Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance) go even further, requiring all federal agencies to inventory their greenhouse gas emissions, set targets to reduce them, and develop a plan for meeting these goals.

That being said, in the United States, debates over various concepts (such as carbon taxes versus cap-and-trade programs) continue unabated, with fascinating hybrid solutions like the proposal by Steve Randy Waldman (of interfluidity.com) for "a scheme that starts as a carbon tax and evolves into a cap-and-trade, that creates incentives for consumers, businesses, and politicians to reduce carbon use, that can be implemented gradually, that doesn't reward past polluters, and that leans just a little bit against inequality."2 Aside from the inevitable scepter of regulatory compliance, federal, state and local agencies are joining the host of private-sector companies in asking, "Why go green?" and, if we must go green, "How green is green enough?" Determining one’s place along what I call the "environmental sustainability continuum" (ESC) and driving toward the nirvana of carbon neutrality or net zero, continues to be a primary preoccupation of organizations today. This is with the expectation that those who adopt "sustainable" business practices will be more effectively positioned for addressing the environmental challenges of the future than those who fail to do so.

To this end, it is apparent that one key aspect of a sustainable business operation is the evaluation and management of the environmental footprint left by an organization’s facilities and other infrastructure assets. Specifically, we are acutely aware that many assets, both directly or indirectly, consume energy and emit greenhouse gases (GHGs). Generally categorized within production, transportation, facility and IT asset classes, this challenge is especially relevant to certain types of assets in an organization’s portfolio of control rooms, assembly lines, labs, data centers, and other assets that are extremely technology-intensive. For instance, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) reports3 that in the United States alone buildings account for:

-70 percent of electricity consumption;
-39 percent of energy use;
-39 percent of greenhouse gas emissions;
-40 percent of raw materials use;
-30 percent of waste output (136 million tons annually); and
-12 percent of potable water consumption.

Another element of a sustainable business is the understanding that this is a process - a journey that, while structured along the ESC, will be as different for each organization as their individual circumstances. With that in mind, the ESC serves as the framework for a solution, and one that accounts for individual levels of maturity along the way. For some, the solution is making the case to begin the journey to go green. For others who have already "got it," the challenge is to understand how green they are through tangible validations and certifications. Yet others are required to go green, with regulatory compliance issues the entry point to their journey…and so on until they reach the ultimate destination of carbon neutrality or net zero, and if applicable, are actively trading in a carbon marketplace or paying just the right amount of carbon taxes. Beginning with a background understanding of the ESC, in the remaining sections we will address how and why the "greening" of our data centers can serve as the impetus for taking this journey.

Background

To assist our clients in going green, we educate them on an ESC construct that defines how they can evolve into an environmentally sustainable business. These all represent viable entry ramps that will serve as the beginning of their journey, and around which our consulting services are applied. This framework is as follows:

-Justification: cost take-out, ROI, business case (why go green?);
-Assessment, evaluation, validation, certification (how green is it?);
-Data collection, data repository, executive aggregation dashboards (developing the data warehouse);
-Carbon, thermal calculations, measurement (determining the footprint, key performance indicators (KPIs));
-Regulatory compliance (EOs 13514, 13423, 13327 - sustainability); item #25 FRPP; Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA); EPACT05; etc.);
-Best practices, policy and standard operating procedures (LEED; federal Green Building Council, NIST’s Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG); Interagency Sustainability Working Group (ISWG); Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP); Green Building Engineer (GBE); Energy Star; Green Grid; EPEAT; GHG Protocol; etc.);
System/technology solutions (implementing/integrating IWMS, EAM, ITAM, BMS, EEMS, etc.);
-Offset programs (preparation for cap and trade, if applicable);
-Carbon marketplace (preparation for active trading, if applicable); and
-Carbon taxes (preparation for appropriate payments, if applicable).

True to human nature, regulatory compliance (the proverbial stick) is often the strongest initial catalyst for change, and in situations in which its authority is relevant, the federal government (and especially the Obama administration) is very motivated to drive the national agenda on climate and energy legislation. In addition to the existing executive orders (13514 and 13423), the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) passed the House of Representatives in June 2009. Similar legislation is being worked through the Senate with the November passage of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act of 2009. Some legislation is currently stalled in the Senate:

-The Lugar Practical Energy and Climate Plan;
-The American Power Act;
-The Carbon Limits and Energy for America's Renewal Act of 2009;
-The Clean Energy Act of 2009;
-The Clean Energy Partnerships Act of 2009; and
-The American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 20094.

Drilling a little deeper, EO 13514 was issued on October 5, 2009 by President Obama. This executive order built upon the foundations of EO 13423 and was aimed at making ambitious and broad improvements in the overall sustainability of the federal government. In general, all federal agencies are required to:

-Inventory their greenhouse gas emissions;
-Set targets to reduce their emissions; and
-Develop a plan for meeting a wide range of goals for improving sustainability, such as improving water efficiency, reducing waste, undertaking sustainable community development planning, including utilizing high-performance buildings, and leveraging sustainable acquisitions, electronics stewardship and environmental management.

Specifically, by January 4, 2010 all federal agencies were to have submitted their greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets relative to a FY (fiscal year) 2008 baseline, for the two main categories (or scopes) of GHGs (Scope 1 and Scope 2). Scope 1 GHGs are direct emissions from the use of fuel, such as gasoline in vehicles, propane in cafeterias and natural gas in furnaces; Scope 2 refers to indirect GHG emissions, typically purchased electricity, most of which is generated through the combustion of fossil fuels that emit carbon dioxide. By June 2, 2010, each agency was also to have submitted a Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan (SSPP) detailing how they were going to meet the various sustainability requirements of the executive order. Agencies also had until June 2 to develop targets for the third category of GHG emissions, called Scope 3. These included employee commuting and business travel as well as GHG emissions resulting from the goods and services provided to each agency by its vendors and suppliers. Agencies then have 15 months - that is, until early January 2011 - within which to submit an inventory of all GHG emissions generated during FY 2010. Deadlines for achieving the individual sustainability targets vary, ranging from 2015 to 2030.

At journey's end, the resulting low carbon footprint and energy-efficient processes and equipment will need to be combined with a similar focus on other key sustainability components, including reducing water consumption, effectively handling sewage, judiciously using raw materials, aggressively recycling waste, planning the development of sustainable communities that utilize high-performance green buildings, and leveraging sustainable acquisition/procurement practices, sustainable electronics stewardship and sustainable environmental management techniques.5

The data center, for example, one of a number of building types in the federal portfolio, is one of the greatest offenders. IBM indicates that, per square foot, annual data-center energy costs are 10 to 30 times more than those of a typical office building (William Tschudi, March 2006)6. Ken Brill of the Uptime Institute asserts that the energy costs are actually 20 to 40 times the consumption of an office building.7

In its "Tivoli and the Green Data Center" presentation at the 2008 Pulse Users Conference8, IBM went on to cite the following:

-Between 2000 and 2010, server installations would grow by six times and storage by 69 times (IBM/consultant studies);
-Data centers have doubled their energy use in the past five years (Koomey, February 2007); and
-U.S. commercial electrical costs increased by 10 percent from 2005 to 2006 (EPA Monthly Forecast, 2007).

Federal sustainability at Deloitte

Considering the statistics cited in the previous section, Deloitte’s vehicle of choice for this particular ESC journey is the high-performance Green Data Center (GDC), because it has the unique ability to truly leverage the convergence of mission, organizational structure and technology infrastructure that has long been an industry quest. While these are critical issues, we are also equally concerned about maintaining high levels of service while reducing energy consumption. These converging goals are becoming much more important for those of our federal clients focused on running their agencies as they would a Fortune 500 company.

Converging missions

As asset managers, besides the current focus on environmental sustainability issues, our challenge historically has been in reconciling the potentially divergent and separate worlds of IT asset management (the IT shop) and enterprise asset management (the facilities folks). With very different missions to accomplish and resulting organizational structures that reinforce their differences, often with no clear cross-walk between them, it is not surprising that we are left with vertical silos that are difficult to integrate. This incongruence is exacerbated by the different technology (both hardware and software) that has historically been used by each group. Branded distinctly as IT asset management/IT service management (ITAM/ITSM) and enterprise asset management (EAM), which originated as computer maintenance management systems (CMMS), these systems have only recently become available as a truly integrated suite of tools designed to support the two components of the organization as described above.

Converging organizational structure

With integrated technology solutions from providers such as TRIRIGA and Tivoli/MAXIMO, as well as other "best of suite" and "best of breed" applications in the market, we are able to provide our clients with an end-to-end solution for all asset classes and types. By implementing improvements in change management and business processes as integral components of our approach, our recommendations often include steps to reengineer the business. For instance, we could suggest reorganizing both departments: facilities and IT could be organized under the leadership of a Chief Asset Officer, titled as such for discussion purposes. The expectation is that she or he would also function as the organization’s sustainability czar. Having both groups reporting to the same executive-level resource can go a long way toward streamlining the organization and fostering collaboration. Addressing new environmental sustainability issues often requires new, forward-thinking solutions.

Converging technology infrastructure

A high-performance GDC, powered by integrated, web-architected solutions, also accommodates the convergence with Building Management Systems (BMS) that can provide real-time information about the operational status of infrastructure assets such as humidifiers, chillers and computer-room air conditioners (CRACs) - all key to the survival of a data center. Providers such as Siemens, Johnson Controls, Honeywell, etc., have developed comprehensive solutions that, when integrated with wireless monitoring technology, can provide "total data center visibility,"9 including the real-time visualization of thermal, humidity and pressure information.

These systems can also be integrated with Enterprise Energy Management Systems (EEMS) to provide critical energy information about and for the data center. This is information that facilitates the balance of power and thermal capacity to the IT load, and helps to reduce the risks associated with data-center consolidation, system virtualization (server, client and storage) and energy optimization. Utilized together and leveraging the thermal and energy data now readily available, this integrated technology suite provides users with the ability to quickly address emergencies as they occur, prevent issues from escalating to a crisis level, or even predict events based on a current trend and potentially prevent them from occurring at all. The primary challenge for a GDC is the quest for true operational efficiency - one with a comprehensive solution for power and cooling - and this is now within reach. By leveraging the tenants of consolidation, virtualization and optimization, the GDC is not an oxymoron.

The time-tested concepts of demand, and preventive/predictive maintenance management, often linked to the maturity level of a facilities organization and the mission-critical nature of its business (and heretofore very difficult to extrapolate beyond the maintenance department), can now be merged with the sophisticated processes and standards (IT Infrastructure Library® or ITIL®); robust, shared databases (Change and Configuration Management Database or CCMDB); and comprehensive service management (with service-level agreements (SLAs) and centralized help desks) to provide our federal clients with end-to-end control and management of their IT and non-IT assets. The GDC can be the right catalyst, serving as the lowest common denominator used by both departments, and one that resonates well at the highest levels of leadership, including the Obama administration’s new Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI).

Converging goals of service levels and energy consumption

While the availability and quality of business services remain of paramount importance, it is maintaining service levels while reducing energy consumption that keeps us awake at night. With increasingly "mission-critical" dependence on technology, coupled with razor-thin margins and tolerance for error, providing high levels of service for our federal clients is key. Access to adequate, efficient and cost-effective sources of energy is a fundamental component of this, with the goal of slashing energy consumption being key to the FDCCI. In a recent white paper, IBM indicated that organizations today are facing an energy crisis, i.e.,

-Increased computing demand creates rapidly escalating energy costs;
-Energy usage is exceeding supply and budgets;
-Executives are under increased pressure from shareholders, activists, employees, etc., to reduce their carbon footprint (and the data center is a prime target for reducing energy use);
-Government regulations for carbon emissions and energy-efficiency are also driving both the public and private sectors to reduce energy use;
-Power or thermal limits prevent data-center consolidation;
-Data centers do not have granular reporting on energy usage such that they can be managed more effectively;
U.S. energy consumption by servers and data centers is expected to nearly double in the next five years;
-Worldwide spending on powering data centers is projected to triple by the end 2010; and
-Provisioning more power and improving cooling in a data center requires significant investment and can take 18 months or more to accomplish.10

When it comes to IT energy costs, little steps can save a lot. In a recent article, ComputerWorld, a well-respected publication, cites that IT managers are paying more attention to the cost of power as servers become more powerful and as local utilities continue to raise their rates. According to Framingham, Massachusetts-based market research company IDC, the amount of money that users will spend worldwide on power and cooling servers will almost double from $26 billion last year to more than $44 billion by 2010.11 The Robert Francis Group says that "power will be the number one issue for most large company IT executives to address in the next two to four years. Ignoring this issue will NOT be an option. Power consideration must be incorporated into data center planning."12  The goal is to have business processes, technology and tools, as well as people’s behavior and habits, all synchronized in support of the environmentally sustainable organization.

Conclusion

Green is the color of the day, and, for both the public and private sectors - either in response to regulatory compliance or for economic survival - environmental sustainability is acknowledged to present great challenges, and is becoming a critical component of the national "solution" moving forward. Based on information provided by the U.S. Climate Technology Cooperation Gateway (www.usctcgateway.net/usctc), IBM presented a fascinating case for the green data center by posing the question: What if all data centers were green?

Assuming a 20% efficiency improvement could save 36 billion kWh or 22m tons of COtons CO2, we could remove 3,505,401 cars and light trucks from company fleets.…or plant 502,440,757 tree seedlings and grow them for 10 years…or manage and preserve 16,329,325 acres of pine or fir forest per year...or recycle 6,597,707 tons of company waste instead of sending to landfills. 13

This is definitely something to think about and at least consider aspiring to achieve. At Deloitte, these aspirations equal action. Our Federal Sustainability Practice is focused on supporting federal agencies in the quest for net zero, environmentally benign operations.

*Footnotes