Air-conditioning bills can really add up. As the federal
government looks for energy savings by consolidating its more
than 2,000 data centers, companies are developing techniques to
save on one of the highest costs associated with data centers —
cooling them. Gary Forbes, power and cooling specialist with
technology company CDW-G, said that in traditional data centers,
the exhaust from servers causes areas farthest from them to be
cooled while areas closest to the servers remain warm. "Bringing
air conditioners and air handlers closer to the loads are the
most notable trend in squeezing energy savings out of existing
facilities," Forbes said. New cooling technology cools servers
directly in a process called "in-row cooling." An added benefit
is that the air conditioners don't have to pump out air as cold
as it had to be, saving energy and increasing efficiency.
Increasing energy efficiency is a top concern of 40 percent of
federal information technology managers surveyed, according to
CDW-G's 2010 Energy Eff