Service Areas: The Green Data Center

RampRate is committed to promoting Green data center operational practices that promote energy efficiency and adhere to sustainability guidelines of our customers. RampRate’s SPY Index™ tracks key “green” criteria of IT services providers and Green data centers, and correlates those criteria to CapEx, OpEx, and other TCO considerations for our clients.

Some of the Green data center areas we track in the SPY Index include:

• Power generation. RampRate identifies the power generation mix and utility sources for Green data center vendors (hydro, nuclear, geo-thermal, wind, solar, coal, etc). RampRate helps clients analyze the cost impact of power generation to their monthly bill. At the client’s request, we can also prioritize Green standards for data center power generation during the vendor evaluation and selection process.
• Sustainable building practices. RampRate’s vendor ratings include Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Ratings on a per-facility basis, as well as the cost impact of pertinent energy-efficient designs for cooling, lighting, materials, and other building components.
• Power Utilization Efficiency (PUE). RampRate tracks the effective use of power within the individual Green data center facilities, as defined by the Green Grid Consortium.
• Carbon footprint. For areas where legislation has instituted a hard cost on carbon usage (through direct taxation or through cap & trade programs), RampRate identifies the potential cost of overall carbon emissions for the vendor’s facility, and estimates the cost of carbon impact for its customers within the facility.

How can RampRate help you? RampRate has worked with many of its clients on their sustainability strategies as related to Green data centers.

• Lower your costs through Green Data Center geographic selection: We help clients optimize their geographic location against their computing requirements, identifying and evaluating regions with a high percentage of grid power derived from renewable sources.
• Get more computing with less power: We advise clients on server, cooling, or other design approaches to achieve more efficient hardware architectures, including high density computing, virtualization, water-cooled blade servers, and DC power.
• Access higher savings with renewable energy sources: We help clients to structure relationships with qualifying Green data center vendors that access the savings available from renewable energy sources for their power supply
• Meet your sustainability commitments by qualifying “Green IT” vendors. We help clients meet their corporate sustainability commitments, particularly related to Green data center and computing requirements.

Know the Regulatory Impact of New Carbon Emission Legislation

Many European and Asia-Pacific countries have already passed critical legislation regulating carbon emissions from data centers. New requirements are on the table in almost all countries around the world. The United Kingdom, for example, has legislation that will impact data center customers significantly starting in 2010, completely changing the cost of sourcing co-location and outsourcing computing. The United States has several bills in Congress, awaiting action, any one of which could increase the cost of in-house and third-party data center services.

RampRate tracks the state of regulatory requirements on a per-country basis, to help our clients understand the potential impact of current and upcoming legislation on new and existing data center services.

Contact RampRate today to learn how our SPY Index Green Data Center metrics and industry knowledge base can help you cut operational costs, increase your PUE, fulfill your corporate sustainability commitments, and reach your green data center goals. If you have general exploratory questions or would like a consultation with one of our Green data center experts, please contact us at info@ramprate.com or call 1-310-802-3702