Thirty-nine per cent out of 100 Australian data centre employees surveyed by Campos Research & Analysis indicated that they were not measuring power usage in their facility.
The research, which was commissioned by Digital Realty Trust, also found that 13 per cent of respondents did not know what their Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) number was while 5 per cent didn’t know what the term PUE referred to.
However, 90 per cent of participants who indicated they are likely to expand data centre operations in 2013 stated they were either ‘extremely confident’ or ‘very confident’ about complying with future regulations on power use and carbon emissions.
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According to Digital Realty Trust's Asia Pacific senior vice president, Kris Kumar, the survey results suggest “a disconnect” in some areas of the Australian data centre industry.
“There is a gap that needs to be closed and an opportunity for the industry to take a more proactive approach to monitoring energy use,” he said in a statement.
“At an operational level, properly monitoring and managing energy use within a data centre environment can significantly reduce operational expenditure and support an organisation’s corporate social responsibility objectives.”
Kumar added that government regulations are being put in place to help organisations improve data centre energy efficiency. This includes the New South Wales government’s National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) for data centres which came into effect in February 2013.
“With regulations in place, PUE numbers can no longer be ‘estimated’,” he said. “Companies that seek a NABERS rating must begin to measure their power use. This in itself is a big opportunity for companies to ensure their facilities operate in an energy efficient manner.”
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