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Energy costs may increase from 10% of the IT budget today to over 50% in the next few years Gartner
On average, servers use about 30% of their peak electricity consumption while sitting idle Forrester
By 2008, 50% of today's data centers will have insufficient power and cooling capacity to meet the demands of high-density equipment Gartner
The total power and cooling bill for servers in the US stands at $14 billion annually IDC

It is widely assumed that a typical server draws on average about 300 watts of energy. Based on this number, it will consume approximately 2600 kW per year. According to UK government figures, 1,960kWh produces 1 tonne of CO₂. This means that a single server generates 1.32 tonnes of CO₂ per year - equivalent to the CO₂ produced by a single passenger flying from London to Cairo!

AppSense Performance Manager helps reduce carbon footprint

The trend towards high-density, high-power consumption equipment makes the cost of powering and cooling the datacenter more relevant than ever. Not only does this impact the bottom line in terms of power costs, it also creates a larger carbon footprint for your organization.

As more business processes are computerised, the number of servers in the typical datacenter is increasing. Meanwhile, electricity costs are rising such that power costs are likely soon to exceed the cost of hardware. It is estimated that only half of the electricity consumed in a typical data centre is actually used by the servers, with 25% going to cooling, 12% to air movement and 13% to electricity transformation and lighting. Today, for every dollar spent on new hardware, an additional 50 cents is spent on power and cooling – more than double the amount five years ago.

It is an irony that most servers typically run at only 5-10% of their resource utilization, yet the difference in power consumption at higher utilization is negligible.

Server Consolidation

By optimizing server resources, it is possible to consolidate your datacenter and get the maximum value for the kW hours of power expended. This can lead to savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in power and cooling costs and a significant reduction in carbon footprint. For example, consolidating 100 physical servers by 40% could save more than 120,000 kWh each year, cutting over 50 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. This is as much as an area of mature forest the size of 12 football fields can remove from the atmosphere in the same period.

Using technology for server consolidation

AppSense has been enabling organizations to reduce server density and take measurable steps to reducing greenhouse gas emissions for many years. AppSense Performance Manager dynamically optimizes server resources such as CPU and memory to ensure maximum utilization. This in turn provides opportunities for reductions in hardware, maintenance, cooling and power costs and a tangible reduction in carbon footprint. Many AppSense customers have realized cost savings in the region of 40% by using Performance Manager to automatically manage their server workload.

Be green while maintaining quality of service

By dynamically optimizing server resources, not only can servers support more users and applications, but the quality of service provided to these users is also optimized. Consistent and predictable application response times are achieved using Performance Manager through the automatic tailoring of server utilization based on user demand. See the AppSense Performance Manager Overview for more information.

See for yourself!

To see how AppSense can help you to cut power costs and reduce your carbon footprint, download a free copy of AppSense Performance Manager by clicking here or alternatively, contact an AppSense sales representative at +44 (0)1928 793323.