Like everything else in life there is a right way to go about reducing energy costs in the data center and a multitude of wrong ways. ... Here's the logic: Yes, the power and cooling infrastructure represents about 50 percent of total power consumption and the IT equipment (servers, storage and communication gear) takes up the other half. But every watt saved at the server component level results in cumulative savings of 2.84 watts when it works its way back through the entire power and cooling infrastructure to where the power comes into the building. If you chase the savings based purely on cooling or power equipment savings, you don't realize quite the same cascading effect. The best strategy, then, is to first look at reducing losses at the component level with the processor being the most important element. Other components, such as the disk and the fans can also bring about small savings. Slower disks draw less power, for example, so if you don't really need super-fast disks, don't order them.
Like everything else in life there is a right way to go about reducing energy costs in the data center and a multitude of wrong ways.
...
Here's the logic: Yes, the power and cooling infrastructure represents about 50 percent of total power consumption and the IT equipment (servers, storage and communication gear) takes up the other half. But every watt saved at the server component level results in cumulative savings of 2.84 watts when it works its way back through the entire power and cooling infrastructure to where the power comes into the building. If you chase the savings based purely on cooling or power equipment savings, you don't realize quite the same cascading effect.
The best strategy, then, is to first look at reducing losses at the component level with the processor being the most important element. Other components, such as the disk and the fans can also bring about small savings. Slower disks draw less power, for example, so if you don't really need super-fast disks, don't order them.
The full article is here : http://www.serverwatch.com/hreviews/article.php/3784971