Data Centers' Growing Power Demands

MIT Technology Review by Kate Greene | Feb. 15, 2007 (Special Report)

A new report quantifies the electricity consumption of servers, revealing a startling trend.

A report issued today estimates that the overall electricity used by servers--computers that make up the networks of organizations, from small businesses to giant financial institutions--doubled between 2000 and 2005. The reasons for this growth rate were an increase in the number of servers installed in data centers and the demands of auxiliary equipment such as cooling fans and facility lighting, says Jonathan Koomey, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley ... Full Story »

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3.1

by Mike LaBonte - Oct. 1, 2008

Short on viewpoints (EnergyStar program?). Makes a decent effort putting data into context. Fails to clarify that the subject report is about server power only, while total data center power (the title) is typically double server power.

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4.0

by Dale Penn - Oct. 1, 2008

Energy conservation topic on a large scale. For servers to use 1.2 percent of US total power comsumption is mind boggling. The article states that this is an estimate with sound data behind it.

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