Three Data Center Power Goals for 2018

October is already here, which means we’re rapidly approaching the end of the year. Before you know it, the holiday rush will arrive, followed closely by the start of 2018 — which means time is running out to plan your data center’s 2018 power management strategy.

Now is an important time to round up your team and discuss ways that you can reduce energy waste next year so that your data center can save money and become more efficient in the process.

Here are three data center power management goals that you should consider for next year: 

1. Eliminate zombie servers: Chances are likely that if you are running a large-scale data center, you have quite a few servers that are running idly and silently wasting a great deal of energy. In 2018 your goal should be to identify these “zombie” servers, determine how much power they are using and then consider shutting them down.
2. Ensure business continuity: As we have learned with hurricanes Irma and Harvey, major weather events can arise with little to no warning — wreaking havoc on unprepared data centers. Can your data center withstand a hurricane? Take a hard look at your backup power systems, and make sure they are capable of functioning properly when they need to switch into place with real-time monitoring. 
3. Improve remote management: Do you have multiple data centers spread around the country or the world? If so, it’s time to consider centralizing management. Invest in a platform like the Power IQ from our partner Sunbird, which can give you a wide range of power management options, directly from a single pane of glass. Your team should be able to execute real-time power management tasks from any location over the Web.