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Practical help through the energy efficiency maze
Loughborough company becomes Official Endorser of the European Code of Conduct on Data Centres.
on365 been granted endorser status for the European Code of Conduct on Data Centres by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) – the EU’s scientific and technical research laboratory.
This means that the Loughborough-based company - a specialist in the planning, installing, management and optimisation of physical IT infrastructure and utility services – will be harnessing the JRC’s practical innovations to help reduce clients’ data centre energy consumption.
The EU code is regarded as the most practical guide yet published in this area of IT operations. Published in November 2009, the code marked the first attempt to set out benchmarks such as DCiE (Data Centre infrastructure Efficiency) and PuE (Power usage Effectiveness) to help the public sector and businesses measure the efficiency and optimise the operation of their data centre, while reducing the infrastructure’s environmental demands.
on365 is already an accredited channel for the Carbon Trust interest free loans to support replace or upgrade existing equipment with more energy efficiency equipment. The loans were extended to include IT equipment earlier this year. The 0% interest loans are available to small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, enabling SME’s to loan between £3,000 and £500,000 to help reduce the overall carbon emission by investing in more energy efficient equipment. Loans are unsecured, interest free and repayable over a period of up to 4 years. The Carbon Trust announced today (March 30) it has funded £60m of energy efficiency equipment upgrades for UK Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to replace old equipment since last April – helping 1,847 businesses and already helping deliver estimated savings of £20 million for SMEs as well as 130,000 tonnes of CO2.
With the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme deadline for the start of the reporting year fast approaching on April 1st, companies need to wake up and take advantage of resources around them. The CRC will affect the UK’s largest 6,000 organisations (and indirectly their partners and suppliers).
Chris Smith comments that “The EU Code of conduct is a very valuable planning tool for IT managers because it provides a scorecard approach to optimising data centres’ performance and best practices that help build the business case for greater energy efficiency and lower costs. It accepts that many IT professionals need to improve what they have – they can’t simply replace assets and it doesn’t use the big stick penalty approach of the CRC. There are also strong ROI benefits from schemes such as The Code of Conduct and the Carbon Trust loans and the Code of Conduct also include a lot of practical advice on improving equipment performance without undertaking any significant capital investment - such as achieving improved cooling in server estates by adding a series of blanking plates to blank rack spaces which reduces air-flow short circuits and bypass.”
