FEATURE
Edge Computing, the much-loved
buzzword of the last few years, offers a
very interesting approach. Decentralising
the data centre and distributing it could
well be a way to improve operations.
Running lower-powered systems closer
to where the data is needed could greatly
reduce the requirements for power and
cooling in large data centres, but simply
transferring data over the Internet has
an impact on the environment. I have
found this approach beneficial when quick
results are required.
Another approach is to use the right tool
for the right job, or in this case – the right
processing silicon. Not every workload
runs efficiently on your typical X86
CPU architecture. Putting in place the
right processing hardware such as GPU,
SmartNICs, or even an FPGA could help to
achieve better compute results and utilise
less power in the process.
Something I have been looking into
recently, and another buzzword,
is containers. I have been working
on transitioning a very large set of
applications that together make up a
single application. However, these apps
are running within a VM and require a
couple of host servers. By migrating
these applications to containers, I am not
only able to achieve a higher density of
containers on the same physical hosts,
but I am also able to achieve application
portability. Containers offer a very
interesting way to shrink down your
TO INCREASE
POWER
EFFICIENCY,
ORGANISATIONS
CAN USE AI
ANALYTICS TO
MONITOR THE
POWER COMING
IN AND HOW IT IS
CONSUMED.
Matthew Underhill, Head of
Infrastructure, Alfred H Knight
current VM estate which means you can
fit more on the same number of hosts,
with the added benefit of making your
applications cloud-native.
Monitoring is vital, not just for the power
and environment as mentioned above,
but also for hosts and workloads. By
improving monitoring, I can identify
wasted resources – for example,
identifying whether a VM assigned too
much CPU or RAM. By sizing workloads
appropriately, we can achieve a higher
density with less.
Finally, I try not to buy more than I need.
Turn off systems that are old and/or
underutilised, dispose of the systems that
are not energy efficient but also safely
dispose of these systems. Year on year I
am looking to do more with less.
Some of what I have spoken about only
works at a certain scale. Hyperscalers are
surprisingly energy efficient due to their
size and ability to make commitments to
greener data centres.
Many hyperscalers have been working
towards greener operations for the last
decade. Studies have shown data centres
globally use 1% of the world’s energy,
which has remained constant year on year,
despite capacity increasing by over 500%
in the last decade. Potentially, a quick win
for smaller organisations is simply moving
to the cloud. ◊
38 Issue 15
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