Netmagic Casting Green Magic With its Data Centers

Increasing demand for energy is soon becoming a cause of concern for IT organisations, big and small alike, spanning across the globe. This is also important as the cost of operating data centers increases owing to the growing use of computing devices and rising energy costs. In fact, even the data centers that were considered state-of-the-art just five years ago are now lagging behind in energy efficient technologies. According to a recent IDC report, power accounts for 40% of the operating expenses of a data center and the cost of this power has doubled in the last five years. The report further mentions that by 2012, the cost of power at data centers will be equivalent to capital costs.

Under the Scanner

Traditionally, data centers are known to consume an incredible amount of power. With the overall proliferation of technology and Internet usage worldwide, it has also led to a stupendous growth in consumption of power. As more and more communities are getting connected there has been a manifold growth in emails, instant messages, searches, financial dealings, video downloads, etc. Increased activities such as these require supplementary computing power, which highlights the need for additional servers, networking equipment, and storage devices to facilitate the rapidly increasing Internet traffic. And, all this in the over scenario, it results in increased quantity, performance, and hence, a substantial increase in power consumption.

Currently, the challenge is how the data center can use energy more efficiently. Various reporting functions such as tracking and reporting carbon footprint information, and the changes over time are crucial for managing energy usage in data centers. It is expected that by usage of solutions that enable improved utilisation and efficiency, organisations can create energy efficiencies in data centers and also meet established response time levels. This has also highlighted the need to opt for a green cover.

As the world makes every right move in the direction of a green game plan to save the environment, India too has refused to remain behind. India has announced ambitious plans to become the worlds first market for trading in energy savings. In order to ensure that its steps are in sync with its plans, the Government of India has formed a national policy group. This group would focus on data center energy efficiency and develop a National Design Code for Energy Conservation in Data Centers and a Best Practice Manual for Indian Data Centers in consultation with the industry.

Green Cover

Recently, a data center at Chennai operated by Netmagic Solutions received recognition as Indias first gold rated data centre under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Commercial Interior (CI) program of United States Green Building Council (USGBC). This certification has been offered by USGBCs arm in India. The LEED certification is an internationally recognized programme and is considered one of the highest standards for energy efficient constructions. Indias Green Building Council describes a green building as one that uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste, and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building.

Talking about the Netmagics association with data centers, Jayabalan, co-founder and CTO, Netmagic, says, This certification is an important milestone that we have achieved as it gives us an edge in the leadership quadrant that we been a part of, according to the recent IDC survey. This new data center is a part of our recent offerings an arena that we moved from strength to strength in the last 10 years. Currently, we have two data centers in Mumbai, one each in Bangalore and Chennai. Incidentally, we even intend to open one more data center at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for algorithm based trading. Our new center in Chennai can be noted as our effort to reduce carbon emission as data centers are the biggest environmental polluters.

The Chennai data center has been built from scratch and hence the requirements for the certification could be taken care of. In other words, the Chennai data center has been built to suit the green criteria. Meanwhile, the other data centers have been built at existing sites and hence, there were only conversions made in the existing structures. This proved as a disadvantage for the other sites. The design parameters have from the primary stage itself ensured that it incorporated all the green aspects. In fact, this is the first data center in India to have received such a certification. But to our surprise on further prodding, it also came to the forefront that this is the first such structure in the Asia-Pacific region also, quips Jayabalan.

About the Center

The Chennai data center has been built with water conservation, site ecology, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, waste management, and sustainability in mind. It features smart meters and other monitoring and measurement equipment and has a high content of recyclable material and eco-friendly interiors. The material and labor sourced were also in sync with the industry rules that cater to certification. The basic idea of green is to reduce, recycle, and reuse and this is what we have tried to do. On the other hand, there has been no compromise whatsoever on the factors of availability or in cooling, says Jayabalan.

The company used the evacuated topsoil at its data center site for landscaping and rainwater and toilet water for irrigation. This has also reduced the amount of water it uses overall by 50% with water efficient fittings and water meters. The company has also encouraged staff to opt for car pooling and electric vehicle charging facilities have also been set up to encourage environmentally sound practices within the group. Fossil fuel utilization has also enabled reduction in utilization of fuel. It has a no smoking premise with adequate number of operable windows to facilitate cross ventilation.

Energy meters provide constant monitoring of consumption in the building. Major interior items such as furniture, seating, carpet, glass, composite wood, aluminium, false ceiling, etc, can be recycled while only eco-friendly paints, adhesives, furniture, carpets and housekeeping chemicals have been used. Waste bins have been provided for different categories of waste. Apart from that, the data center also has efficient lighting systems that uses light reflecting paint on the roof, which in turn, reduces internal temperatures by three to four degrees. This has also brought its energy use down by 20%. The energy efficient lighting system installed has got a lighting power density of 0.69 W/sq ft as against 1 W/sq ft for office space.

Occupants have been provided with task lighting and lighting control to ensure better comfort and high productivity. On the exteriors of the building reflective painting and glass ensure that not much heat passes through resulting in cooling. We have ensured that there is efficiency maintained in cooling. Proper ventilation ensures the passage of fresh air, informs
Jayabalan.

Netmagics 30,000 sq ft data center in Chennai was launched in October last year but became operational around March 2010. In other words, it can be said that this data center has been operational since past 6-8 months. This data center is carrier neutral and has more than 40 customers with a majority of them who intend to have Chennai as a DR as this data center has a fiber landing station. Targeting the manufacturing, BSFI, and SMB segment, the company is expecting to get around 8% of its total managed services revenue from the Chennai data center. Netmagic also plans to reduce its carbon footprint across its other data centers and offices.

With an eye for every minute detail towards structuring a green data center, Netmagic has surely cast its green magic. So, whos next to jump on the bandwagon?

Shilpa Shanbhag
shilpas@cybermedia.co.in