Common-sense storage innovations slash storage energy use
Xyratex has taken a second step into the lower-power storage arena with the OneStor SP1224s that uses 2.5″ SAS drives. In February they added software to their RAID platform that allows OEMs to selectively spin down drives not in use.
Lisa Hart at Xyratex says “This is like having a light switch on your wall.” Exactly! Everyone understands that leaving lights on in an empty room is a waste. Storage is not so different:
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Use smaller drives. The OneStor SP1224s provides double the performance & half the watts with high performance 2.5″ SAS drives instead of 3.5″ drives. This is the equivalent of having a smaller room that gets plenty bright with a smaller bulb.
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Turn off drives when not in use. MAID technology is going mainstream after pioneering efforts by Copan and others. It’s not for every application, but hits the spot for many of today’s high-growth capacity apps.
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Turn off parts of drives when not in use. Seagate’s PowerTrim technology on Barracuda ES and Cheetah 15K 3.5″ drives takes the MAID approach to the drive level by selectively turning off the lights in some “rooms” of the drive’s electronics in a smart way that doesn’t impact performance.
Expect to see more vendors applying smart power management at all leveles to make a big dent in data center Watts per terabyte (or petabyte!).
Comments please: who’s using MAID, PowerTrim or 2.5″ SAS today? Who’s planning to?
With all the hype from companies offering dubiously “green” solutions, it is interesting to see Xyratex coming to market with a greener product and not simply green-washed.
Using 2.5-inch SAS drives significantly lowers power consumption – as well as using less power to cool down those drives.
MAID technology in Xyratex’s system is very interesting. And combined with Seagate’s PowerTrim technology, this makes for a very compelling product for the data center.
Designing energy efficient products is a great engineering problem – doing more with less.
Like turning off the lights when you aren’t in the room, there are a lot of common-sense design choices that can save kilowatts and megawatts when implemented across the industry.
For a great engineering-focussed view on the broader topic, see a keynote from the recent FAST conference:
http://www.usenix.org/events/fast08/tech/#thurs
the “cradle to cradle” view comes from the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Cradle-Remaking-Way-Make-Things/dp/0865475873
which I also recommend highly. Written by an architect and a chemical engineer, not by marketers.
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