BANGALORE, INDIA: "Data centre power and cooling costs are the hidden enemy of any IT department," says Prasenjit Mukherjee, DGM (Head-IT infrastructure and operations), BSES. In an interview with CIOL, Mukherjee shares the company's plans towards Green IT.

Excerpts:

CIOL: What are the measures being taken to improve data centre's energy efficiency and reduce power consumption?
Prasenjit Mukherjee: It is a real fact that we cannot make improvements if we do not measure it; hence the plan involves some easy and inexpensive ways to improve our data centre's energy efficiency and reduce power consumption.

The old hot-aisle and cold-aisle: A hot-aisle, cold-aisle layout of data centre equipment is the best method for assuring that it is properly cooled. According to the layout, cool air flows through the aisles where it is taken in by the servers and other equipments. 

The hot air is then exhausted out of the back of the system to the hot aisles and to the air conditioner return ducts. Hot air is exhausted through the top of the equipment. 

Racks must also be positioned perpendicular to the air conditioning to allow the unobstruction flow of hot air.

Set go airflow: We have to establish the right set points in configuring data centre temperature and humidity. The placement of temperature sensors on equipment can help us to determine correct set points for temperature/humidity levels. 

Most of the equipments are warranted to operate at a maximum temperature of 95 degrees fahrenheit. Thus we can reduce their energy costs by at least 4 percent for every upward set point change.

Server virtualisation and optimisation are other means to achieve energy efficiency.