Widespread failure to optimise UK data centres

The research findings suggest that an inadequate understanding of data centre performance was preventing many facilities from operating efficiently, with just over a third of respondents saying that they actively undertake monitoring and measurement of their operations. It also seems there is significant over capacity of power and cooling within many data centres, of up to 60 per cent in some cases, which is having a detrimental affect on performance levels and driving up energy consumption unnecessarily.

Mike West, Managing Director of Keysource commented: "The feedback we are getting shows that most data centres have the potential to become more efficient. However, there seems to be a perception amongst data centre owners and operators that these improvements require high levels of capital expenditure, which in our experience is not always the case. The challenge is for businesses to work closely with a data centre partner to create a business case with a sensible return on investment.

"In particular, effective monitoring makes it possible to review and assess energy consumption enabling companies to identify quick wins and best practise that can achieve considerable savings without excessive spending. Furthermore, optimising facilities to be more efficient goes hand in hand with improving overall performance, which can deliver additional business benefits such as enabling the deployment of higher density IT."