1. Energy Efficient ICT at the University of Sheffield Chris Cartledge Independent Consultant C.Cartledge@sheffield.ac.uk With thanks to The University of Sheffield SusteIT

2. Practical Steps for ICT Electricty Use Improvement ICT Electricity Use Footprint IT equipment, Measuring and Costing  The Electricity Bill  Purchasing Data Centres  European Code of Conduct  ASHRAE 2008 PCs  Practical purchasing  A benchmark

3. University of Sheffield ICT Electricity Use (2008) More than £1M/year About 20% Institution use PCs dominate Servers: over 30% (including HPC & departmental)‏

4. University of Sheffield Data Centres Electricity (2008) Servers, Network, PABX Over 40% of ICT use, £400,000 p/a Including departmental & remote cabinets Could be higher – overheads underestimated?

5. Measuring Power Use Manufacturer's figures Where they exist Measure equipment Instantaneously or Over a period or better Monitor continuously Use meter readings Remember aircon, UPS, etc overheads

6. Electricity Cost In 2008, electricity was 10p per unit (kilowatt hour)‏  plus VAT (5%) and climate change levy?  has increased and is increasing, so now say 15p  Over a year of 365*24 = 8760 hours  About £1.80 per watt per year Date centres  Measured air conditioning overhead at Sheffield is 1.8  Typical, and much lower than aircon CoP (earlier estimate was 1.5)  Now continuously monitored by SNMP and Ganglia  So for equipment in data centre, electricity costs 27p per unit  Over a year, about £2.40 per watt of IT equipment installed

7. IT Equipment Buying Typically, it is blind to electricity consumption  The bill is somebody else's responsibility  Information not always easily available  Cost from configuration tool, but not electricity use  Lots of other complex issues: VMware, Wake on LAN, Stable platform, etc... Sheffield includes life cost of electricity in VFM

8. Purchasing Example Sun X2200 HPC Server ~25% Power Saving worth £130 p/a Watt s

9. Sheffield Data Centres Two, conventional:  Dark - with the lights off! Physical changes  Hot aisle – cold aisle arranged, with some aisle containment  Redundant aircon units switched off  Power monitoring, using SNMP capable distribution blocks, into Ganglia Equipment changes  Virtualisation – PC, SPARC servers and storage (NAS) Redundant equipment switched off  HPC compute servers powered up dynamically Signed up to EU Code of Conduct on Data Centres IT working with Estates - not always easy

10. Code of Conduct for Data Centres A European Action to Improve Energy Efficiency  http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/html/standby_initiative_data%20centers.htm Best Practice Guidelines to enable change  About 120 good practices: covers all issues  Including on setting up a project to bring about change  An excellent, readable, How To Do It guide Unlikely to become compulsory  HEFCE mindful of University independence  But possibly unavoidable? Sheffield has signed up to it

11. EU Code of Conduct Group Involvement Establish a cross disciplinary change board Consider impacts, ensure effective solution Definition of standard IT hardware M&E implications of new services Audit existing equipment  optimise and consolidate where possible  Virtualisation  Temperature set point  Identify and deal with little used and unused services

12. EU Code of Conduct Some Top Rated Practices Buy energy efficient IT devices Use virtualised servers and storage Switch off hardware for unused services Virtualise little used services Separate cold air from heated return air Use free or economised cooling Increase temperature set points

13. Desktop PCs Monitors  LCDs much better than CRTs  Now power down automatically, by default Desktop PCs  Powered down, when not in use  Thin client (Sunray) deployed where appropriate  Lifetime cost of electricity factored into purchase decisions  Other issues – in particular maintaining a stable platform It has not been feasible to have PCs specially built Instead Standard PCs are configured to be electrically efficient

14. PCs Information on energy consumption now better EnergyStar Typical Energy consumption available A guide - good for office PCs, not 24 hour use BUT PCs could/should be better!  In 2007 Sheffield identified Mac Mini as Best in Class  Still is today: a genuine core 2 duo PC but not feasible  No Windows license not a standard PC platform...

15. Apple Mac Mini vs PCs