Recherche

The initial results of the ‘Green IT' initiative launched just a year ago by Thales, a leading supplier of critical information systems, show that electricity consumption at the company's datacentres has been cut by as much as 13%. Thales implemented a coherent environmental performance improvement strategy for its data resources in 2007, targeting four key areas: improve energy efficiency, streamline infrastructure, implement high-density cooling technologies and optimise datacentre management. These excellent results rank Thales among the top 15% of Green IT companies, according to a poll by French IT magazine, Le Monde Informatique, translating into benefits for both internal and external customers.

5% of IT costs
Thales has embraced Green IT to address the twofold need for improved environmental performance and cost savings. As well as demonstrating a responsible attitude, which is vital for the company's image among customers, shareholders and consumers, this initiative also enables Thales to significantly reduce its energy bill. Electricity consumption currently accounts for 5% of overall IT costs due to the combined effect of increased computational power, increased system density and rising energy costs. Moore's law clearly also applies to power consumption.

New-generation cooling systems
Improving energy efficiency is the top priority for Thales, which deploys 4,000 servers at facilities that cover some 5,000 m2 at the company's six main European datacentres. In 2007, Thales replaced inverters and cooling systems with latest-generation equipment at its Elancourt datacentre in France and built a new datacentre in Doncaster, UK, to meet its growing needs in this country, cutting power consumption by 10% and 13%, respectively, without compromising data processing capacity.

Semi-closed loops
With the Elancourt datacentre required to host increasingly high-density servers, the air-conditioning systems that push air through drop ceilings have reached their limitations and are now being phased out: "They cool both the room and machines indiscriminately," explains a Thales engineer. The solution lies in in-row cooling systems between racks that address hotspots in the datacentre. These are now being deployed at all new facilities and for all datacentre retrofits. This improvement alone will cut energy spending by between 15% and 30%. In addition, glycol-cooled systems have been replaced by water-cooled solutions

Free-cooling
Thales's Doncaster datacentre in the north of England opted for a ‘free-cooling' system. This operates on the basis of an additional circuit in the radiators that allows the surrounding air to cool the water. As soon as the outside temperature drops below 11°C, the cooling circuit is automatically cut off to reduce electricity consumption. The colder the climate, the more efficient the system. In this case, the system has slashed the datacentre's energy costs by 13% and will have paid for itself within 20 months.

19% savings
As part of its Green IT initiative, Thales has also embarked on an ambitious programme to virtualise and streamline its servers. As well as reducing energy bills, this also simplifies system administration, flowing through to greater flexibility and responsiveness for customers. It's worth remembering that a server which is only used to 15% of its capacity consumes almost as much energy as one used to full capacity. For its France-based activities, Thales estimates that it can save up to 19% on its electricity expenditures by reducing the number of servers by 25% and the number of racks by 20%, while still running the same volume of applications. Thales continues to forge ahead with its Green IT agenda and has invested in a dedicated infrastructure management tool from Physical Networks Software to identity other IT ‘black spots'.