E-C-O = Economy & Ecology

In August 2006, Sun and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) announced an energy incentive program whereby California customers can receive a cash savings of $700 to $1,000 per server when they replace existing equipment with Sun's eco-responsible servers. This agreement signifies an expanded awareness of how critical energy efficiency is in the data center and is likely to be the first of many such initiatives. Sun's Vice President of Eco-Responsibility, Dave Douglas, shares insights with Sun Executive Boardroom readers on the impetus behind the initiative — and its significance for customers.

Q: How do businesses benefit from the announcement between Sun and PG&E?

A: PG&E recognized Sun's leadership in the area of energy-efficient servers and made the T1000 and T2000 the first server products to receive a rebate. If you are a data center manager looking to upgrade your servers, you get this rebate on top of the money that you save in energy, as well as related cooling and power distribution costs. When you add all of that up, it becomes an attractive way to ease the overall energy burden, help the environment, and save money.

A: There is a confluence of forces driving the timing for this type of incentive program. First, energy costs are going up. Analysts are saying that energy is now 15-20 percent of the budget of many large data centers, meaning that this has now become economically significant for IT and finance folks.

Second, in many geographic areas energy capacity is maxed out. This was especially acute during the summer hot spells on the West and East Coasts of the U.S. where Sun participated in voluntary energy reduction measures at our major sites in California and Massachusetts.

Third, many IT managers are hitting the limits of space, cooling, and power in their data centers. Their question is how to add compute capacity without taking on the expensive and lengthy process of building new data centers.

Finally, awareness of the environmental effects of energy usage is rising. More people understand that the size of your electricity bill is related to your contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental issues.

This same confluence of forces has caused the U.S. Federal government to take action. On July 12th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Bill 5646 which directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to analyze the rapid growth and energy consumption of computer data centers by the Federal government and private enterprises. [At press time, the bill awaited approval by the Senate.]

Q: How does PG&E benefit from this deal?

A: Large data centers are a big drain on power, particularly in information-rich economies such as Silicon Valley where many large data centers are located. PG&E has a long history of incenting customers to make more energy-efficient choices in an effort to moderate the demand growth and the resulting requirements for major new power plant investments. In this sense, Sun and PG&E are very aligned in helping customers understand the energy consequences of their IT purchasing decisions.

Q: Is this a worldwide issue?

A: The need to increase energy efficiency in the data center is worldwide. Utilities around the world are looking for ways to decrease the demand on energy consumption, and data center operators are trying to manage their energy and data center costs. We will likely see programs such as the one sponsored by PG&E elsewhere in the near future.

This problem is magnified in rapidly-growing economies such as India and China where there is already a challenge to meet rapidly-expanding power needs. In other parts of the world, the focus is more on alternative energy sources, and in those cases, the issue is to keep data centers at power levels where alternate sources can start to have a major impact.

Q: Why is this initiative important to Sun?

A: We are entering the Participation Age, with businesses and individuals increasing their network presence. Three million people join the network every two weeks, resulting in steady increases in demand for computing. In order for the power of the network to be fully realized, the technology must be more efficient in order to keep up with the increased demand.

In addition, eco-responsibility is a core value at Sun. It's important that we minimize the impact to the planet while we enable this new age to come into being. With our current product line, we are well positioned to fuel the Participation Age in a responsible way. In particular, our Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 products have proven time and again that they are the ideal energy-efficient server for wide range of network applications and services.

This PG&E initiative raises awareness of the issue of server power consumption and provides a great incentive to customers on top of the savings they will see through their decrease in energy consumption.

Q: How much savings can customers expect?

A: Customers can save up to $1,000 per server or up to 35 percent when combined with the Sun Upgrade Advantage Program when they replace existing equipment with Sun's eco-responsible servers as part of PG&E's Non-Residential Retrofit program. Check out PG&E's rebate site for specifics.

Eco-responsibility is good for the environment, but it's also good for business. I often tell people that E-C-O stands for both ecology and economy. I think these two will converge more and more as we move through the 21st century.

About Dave Douglas

As Vice President of Eco-Responsibility at Sun, Douglas is responsible for the strategy and execution of environmental initiatives across the company — including enhancements to Sun's products in the areas of energy efficiency, cooling technologies, product recycling, and clean manufacturing — continued improvements in Sun's day-to-day operations, and management of Sun's asset sharing through programs, donations and access to Sun Grid resources. Learn more.