Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Investigation of the Data Centres
The more specific analysis of a data centre (Van
der Graaf, 2009) concerns four parts. These are:
In the Netherlands, the abovementioned in-
vestigation usually takes place for data centres of
between 50 and 1000 square metres in size. Van
der Graaf (2009) states that analysis often shows
that it is possible to save between 30 and 70% in
energy costs. If consolidation and/or virtualisation
means a change from five servers to one single
large server, one is able to save 60% in power
consumption
1. investigation of the data centre by its
management;
2. the making of an inventory and analysis of
applications and dealing with data;
3. the making of an inventory and analysis of
ICT provisions such as servers and storage
media;
4. the making of an inventory and analysis of
facilities such as electricity and cooling
Recycling of ICT Cooling
Facilities and ICT Provisions
Suppliers are often required to take care for dis-
posal of their products. Suppliers take care of this
by concluding contracts with recycling companies.
In reality, this involves the disposal of hardware
such as servers, laptops, monitors, keyboards and
computer mice or parts thereof such as cables or
resources such as toners and cartridges.
At disposal, the hardware and resources are
collected and these will ultimately end up with
recycling companies. In these companies, these
objects are disassembled. Monitors for example
are dismantled and separated into plastic parts,
electronics, cathode-ray tubes and wiring. These
parts are sold on or further processed by special-
ist companies. One organization for example is
specialised in the processing of the cathode-ray
tubes and another organization in recovering
precious metals.
Every year, 45 million kilos of ICT hardware
is introduced to the Dutch market. Over twenty
million kilos of this is recycled via the ICT-Milieu
(ICT Environment) foundation, which is part of
ICT Office, the sector organization for ICT. Three
hundred members of this sector organization
participate in its ICT collection system. To get
an impression of the amount of ICT equipment
recycled in a municipality as Amsterdam or in a
large bank as Rabo one has to count with 1000-
3000 pieces of equipment every year. It is not
known, what is done with the other 25 million kilos.
Figure 8 gives a global outline of the four parts.
The investigation roughly takes place according
to the step-by-step plan as described below:
1. During a preparation phase, the customer is
asked to collect a limited number of data on
their own data centres. This provides them
with a fairly clear idea of the position of
their organization. This also creates a basis
for further research.
2. The team is created. This team is chaired by
someone of the investigated organization. It
consists of representatives of the data centres
and employees of the advisory organization.
The team reports to the steering committee.
Next, the team meets, discusses the data col-
lected during the orientation phase, decides
what the next steps should be and what data
needs to be collected.
3. The team collects the required data. For this,
specialists in the field of housing and IT are
questioned. This step also includes a visit to
the investigated data centres.
4. After having been checked and possibly
added to, the collected data is analyzed.
Next, the analysis is put into a report; this
is discussed by the team and if necessary
amended.
5. Finally, this report is presented to the client.
