CentriServ / Server-Based Computing Solutions

CentriServ and Green Computing

Green Computing is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently.ⁱ

Virtualization and Server Based Computing reduces emissions, by utilizing fewer servers, power and cooling and providing a low-power/low-cost thin client on the users desktop. All while centralizing and streamlining administration and providing high availability.

Computers overall now account for about 2% of worldwide energy usage. By the end of 2008, according to Gartner, Inc. analysts, half of the world’s datacenters won’t have enough energy capacity to meet the power and cooling requirements of the latest high-density computing equipment, such as blade serversⁱⁱ

In addition, Gartner estimates that energy bills, which traditionally have accounted for less than 10% of an overall IT budget, soon could account for more than half. In the U.S., for example, consumption of electricity by IT has doubled since 2000 and now comprises 3% of total electricity consumed nationally.

Electrical power for datacenter servers is only part of the problem. Non-IT devices also consume datacenter power, including transformers, uninterruptible power supplies, power wiring, fans, air conditioners, pumps, humidifiers, and lighting. Almost all of the electrical power feeding the datacenter ultimately ends up as heat, and traditional datacenters typically waste more than 60% of the energy they use to cool equipment, according to Gartner. In the case of PCs, about half of the power consumed is wasted.

Virtualization of Desktops and Servers

Financial Benefits of Virtualization

Direct savings in server and desktop hardware, storage, networking, and data center power and cooling. (As much as $60,705 over three years in a 30:3 consolidation from power and cooling alone).
Indirect savings in reduced unplanned downtime and disaster recovery costs.

Operational Benefits of Virtualization

Disaster recovery / business continuity previously cost prohibitive for many is now achievable.
Server and desktop provisioning reduced from days to hours.
Improved data security.
Centralized and simplified management of updates and patches.

Energy Benefits of Virtualization

Power savings of 557,000 KWh over three years. At today's rates, that's a $60,705 savings in electricity costs.
A typical 30:3 server consolidation reduces CO2 emissions at the power plant by 21,000 lbs in three years. That's the equivalent to what the average car emits in 21 months.

Virtualization software technologies are delivering valuable solutions for many common IT challenges in areas such as server consolidation and containment, business continuity, test and development optimization, and desktop management.

When reducing server population by as much as 90% through virtualization, organizations are reaping the benefits of reduced costs in hardware, maintenance, and power bills while at the same time establishing business continuity capabilities previously unobtainable due to cost. Companies wanting to replace traditional desktops are deploying server-based desktops because it reduces desktop deployment and management costs while securing business data.

Through our relationships with energy conservation organizations, our Solution Center Virtualization Lab, and our partnerships with Citrix, VMware and IBM; CentriServ is a leader in implementing green virtualization solutions.

How To Go Green

Delivery Infrastructure of the Green Datacenter

The key to any effective response to these challenges is to be able to maintain, and even increase, the capacity of IT infrastructure while reducing its energy consumption. The application delivery infrastructure has many of the components required to enable IT to achieve many green objectives through consolidating or offloading workloads to and consolidating servers in the datacenter and reducing energy consumption in the office. Centralizing applications and data for delivery to users need not have a negative impact on datacenter power consumption. Intelligent server provisioning and load management can ensure that only that hardware which is needed to meet user requirements is actually being used.

Green Methods

Citrix Xen App
- Multiple users connecting to the same server(s) to access either applications or a desktop. Multiple sessions running within the same Operating System (OS)
  - Lowest TCO per user
  - Easy to manage
  - Thin client capable

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Hosted Desktops
- Each user accesses a distinct OS instance having a single session running inside a unique virtual machine. Multiple virtual machines run on top of the same Hardware Virtualization Layer, such as VMware ESX Server or Citrix XenServer. This difference provides VDI with several advantages over Server Based Computing

Blade Servers PC’s
- Blade server systems offer significant advantages, particularly when used in combination with virtualization products as part of a consolidation effort. Although most people think of blades for space savings, the modularity, pre-wiring, sharing of common modules and powerful remote management offer great benefits in cost savings, simplification and reduced management costs.
  - Server Virtualization - Blade servers are optimized for virtualization and will meet or exceed all of the required certifications by VMware and Citrix. These blades will offer a variety of processor capabilities, memory capacity and storage strategies. Virtual-ready blades will also be highly effective for use with other hypervisor offerings from vendors such as Citrix XenServer and Microsoft, as well as other leading computer virtualization products.
  - Desktop Virtualization - “Back racking” of Blade PC desktops will enable desktop users with multiple screens to have a seamless computing environment, while all the benefits of cost-of-ownership of the blade systems apply to the PC hardware itself, which is enabled through blade servers. Basic and advanced connection management strategies are offered, enabling hundreds to thousands of desktops to be virtualized and consolidated.

Thin Clients
- Researchers found that PCs use twice as much electricity as a thin client-server system. "Energy consumption when in operation was up to 50 per cent lower than for conventional PCs," said Dr Hartmut Pflaum, a Fraunhofer researcher. "While PCs consume about 85 watts on average, thin clients including their server get by with 40 to 50 watts." Reducing the amount of power used by the estimated ten million PCs in businesses could reduce carbon emissions output by 485,000 tons a year, as well as saving 78 million in electricity costs.ⁱⁱⁱ

CentriServ Virtualization Lab

The CentriServ Solution Center is all about making you comfortable with Virtualization technologies through hands-on demonstration and experimentation. Not sure if your application will work well in a virtualized world? Bring it in, and let’s virtualize it. The lab consists of Blade Servers, SANs, VMware and Citrix XenServer hosts as well as an array of Devon IT Thin Clients.

Centriserv Partnerships

Through engineering certifications and successful Virtualization implementations, CentriServ has achieved the Citrix Solution Advisor Gold Partner (CSA), Citrix Authorized Learning Center (CALC), VMware Infrastructure Partner (VIP) Enterprise and IBM BladeCenter and Storage Solution Center (BSSC) partnership levels. These achievements differentiate CentriServ as a leader in Virtualized solutions.

We are also one of only a few VMware partners in the United States with which VMware works for Virtual Desktop Management (VDM) solutions and provides authorized VMware Training. We also provide all certified XenServer, Xen App and NetScaler training at our Solution Center.

ⁱ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing.
ⁱⁱ "The Green Grid Opportunity — Decreasing Datacenter and Other IT Energy Usage Patterns”, The Green Grid, 2007.
ⁱⁱⁱ http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/109509/thin-clients-easier-on-the-environment-study-claims.html.