Green Notes

Financial giant Citi is priding itself on the company’s modern data center infrastructure that is flexible enough to take on a variety of requests from clients.Five years ago, Citi ‘s data center faced a number of challenges lack of capacity, limited flexibility limited and high risk of proximity.

Due to lack of cohesive, global data center strategy Citi  decided to reduce the number of data centers worldwide from 52 to 14 strategic sites, including five constructed from the ground up. As a first step, it implemented a global standard for data center construction and engineering. One of Citi’s latest constructions in Georgetown, received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It was a team effort with the data center team providing the engineering perspective and the corporate real-estate representatives lending the construction expertise to the projects.

The 100,000-square-foot Georgetown data center delivers 75 watts per square foot of power, expandable to 100W/square foot. Citi has divided the data center into four equally sized rooms. This setup reduces the amount of cabling needed and allows Citi to group technologies by room based on cooling requirements. Compared with the previous newly constructed data center, the Georgetown site uses 800 kilowatts less power for the same footprint, for a 30% reduction in energy costs, the company reports. Virtualization increased server density and led to 30% to 35% reduction in the number of physical servers. Citi was also able to put a cap on Power consumption for technology . According to Computer World , in the 2002 to 2007 timeframe, Citi’s data center power consumption grew by 10% to 12% per year but now thanks to virtualization, Citi has been flat on consumption year over year. Other major Citi projects that have received LEED certification include data centers in Singapore, Frankfurt, Texas, two Citi office parks in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and a 15-story skyscraper in the New York City Borough of Queens.

Projects looking for LEED certification have to meet certain prerequisites and specific performance standards to gain credits. According to the credits won, you will be certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum. The standards prescribe options for site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. LEED-certified buildings must also adhere to benchmarks set by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) promoting reduction in energy consumption. Data centers certified by the LEED Green Building Rating System need not necessarily be owned by huge corporations with attached office space. Innovative design, responsible building practices and expert energy management consultation provided by a green consultation firm like Green Rack Systems can help you achieve your green goals.

At Green Rack Systems, we have been saying for a long time how this emphatic shift towards clean energy is inescapable. A November study by AFCOM finds that “greening of the data center is no longer just a concept – it is actually taking place”, and on a large scale, with 71.3% of all survey respondents indicating that they are actively engaged in Greening. Now, thanks to Executive Order 13514 requiring rigid energy efficiency targets, even Federal agencies have to follow what they preach by taking the lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Further, they will have to divert 50% of their waste by 2015 and arrive at a net-zero energy building requirements by 2030 for all of its 500,000 buildings. This will be made possible by key changes made in their massive IT departments, servers and data centers. The laudable target of net-zero for their buildings would be impossible to achieve without adopting efficiency strategies that we have been discussing about in our previous blogs, such as virtualization, renewable energy, alternative cooling methods, energy tracking technology etc. The new initiative also dictates that 95% of new acquisitions must be Energy Star or Federal Energy Management Program compliant, be EPEAT certified, contain recycled content, or otherwise be more sustainable than other products

  Some specifics of the order include:

Procurement preference for EPEAT- registered electronic products;

Policy implementation to enable power management, duplex printing, and other energy-efficient or environmentally preferable features on all eligible agency electronic products;

Environmentally sound practices in case of agency excess or surplus electronic products;

Procurement of Energy Star and FEMP designated electronic equipment;

Best management practices for energy-efficient management of servers and Federal data centers.

Cost-effective, innovative strategies, such as highly reflective and vegetated roofs, to minimize consumption of energy, water, and materials;

Reduction in the the consumption of energy, water, and materials, and identifying alternatives to renovation that reduce existing assets’ deferred maintenance costs.

Find opportunities while procuring real estate to consolidate and dispose of existing assets, optimize the performance of the agency’s real- property portfolio, and reduce associated environmental impacts

Rehabilitation of federally owned historic buildings utilizes best practices and technologies in retrofitting to promote long- term viability of the buildings.

In addition to the above, the directive advices employees to consider alternatives to traditional commuting and business travel such as telecommuting, web meet technologies etc.

The above practices are implementable for any office or data center outside of the governmental offices that it meant for. Now with Washington setting definite, targeted goals for itself in the green department, commercial enterprises who have lagged behind would very soon have no choice but to follow the lead.

It seems like the most simple logical solution to energy conservation-powering down servers not in use. After all not all servers are used all the time. For example servers that perform only a single predictable function such as for calculating the employee pay are used only on certain days in a month. Or those used for special testing or running backups and so on. It makes sense that they power themselves down when not in use just like in commonplace electronic gadgets.

The Alliance to Save Energy, Kelton Research and 1E, a software IT company, found through surveys of server managers and analysis of industry data that out of the world’s 44 million servers, roughly 4.7 million of them are idle and not doing necessary work.

“Contrary to popular belief, one of the largest causes of energy and IT operational waste in data centers are servers that are simply not being used. The savings from decommissioning non-productive servers cannot be ignored. Organisations need better information on server efficiency and more effective ongoing server energy management,” comments Sumir Karayi, CEO, 1E.

The key problem highlighted in the study is that over eight in ten (83%) of IT managers admit that they do not have an adequate grasp of server utilization . That is they have no idea which of the servers are actually in use and which are not at a given point of time. So to be on the safe side and avoid any unwanted interruptions while running applications, they supply power to all servers uniformly even those that are not working.

But not all IT managers approve of powering down servers. The old school of thought seems to be that servers should run 24/7 for fear of ruining the hardware and also of getting a bad rap sheet from clients. Others dread the difficulty of getting a server back to an operational state once it’s turned back on after powering down.

Ted Samson in infoworld interviewed several experts on this issue:

Infrastructure technologist at HP, said powering down servers is completely safe. “It’s not at all bad for the server. It’s something we do to electronic devices all the time. It can handle it from a hardware perspective,” said Baker.

But Brad McCredie, an IBM fellow for the Systems and Technology Group, wasn’t quite so sanguine. He explained that, technically speaking, powering off and on any kind of computer can have a detrimental effect over time.

“[Temperature cycling] is a well-established failure mechanism and a stress on components,” McCredie pointed out. “What it really comes down to is all these things — chips soldered on modules, soldered on boards and connectors — that expand and contract when they heat and cool…. When they all contract and expand at different rates, they can fail. That’s ultimately the bad thing with power cycling,” he said.

Mark Monroe, director of sustainable computing at Sun, suggested that machines can handle being shut down a finite number of times. Arguably, the number is large enough for regular power cycling over an extended period of time. “Most server vendors today say they’ll support a certain number of cycles of powering things on and off,” Monroe said. “I believe most of the server vendors would say [the number] is in the hundreds as opposed to the thousands.”

From the above survey it is safe to assume that for the most part , datacenters armed with the burden of reducing power costs are willing to at least take a look at this controversial method in moderation.

There have been a host of products in the market recently to tackle efficient power downs without mess-ups. IE launched its power management software for servers that use smart algorithms to figure out which servers are doing work and the energy they are using. According to IE its “NightWatchman Server Edition” can power down servers into a drowsy state, cutting their energy use by 12 percent. IBM has a product called Active Energy Manager that features advanced energy control options designed to boost performance per watt by slowing processor clock speed or even putting processors in “nap” mode when not in use. There are numerous others following the same trend including VMware that offers a functionality in VMware Infrastructure 3.5 called Distributed Power Management that powers servers on and off according to demand level.

Not all servers are automatic candidates for shutdowns however. Servers dedicated to specific scheduled computing that occurs only at certain times of the month or wanes at certain pinpointed times during the day are ideal targets for powering down. For more expert consultation on powering down processes and other methods of energy saves for your data center, contact us at GreenRack Sysems/408-2138144.

There is a huge initiative among companies like Google, IBM, Cisco and so many other smaller smart grid players to make the grid more modernized using cutting edge digital technology and tackle environmental issues, cost reduction and energy conservation. We employ integrated communications, sensing and measurement technologies, enhanced interfaces and control methods to optimize our electricity transmission.The common smart grid components incorporating network, wireless and IT technology consist of smart meters, data concentrators, system monitoring software, increase in transmission lines etc. They help oversee the precise location of electricity consumption and predict potential blackout areas. Consumers can also monitor more clearly where and how the electricity is being absorbed which will provide them with more leverage to effectively save on energy.

When President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill on Feb. 17 , 2009 , a large part of his strategy focuses on renewable alternative energy to gain energy independence but one of he largest investments, about $11 billion dollars has been dedicated to in smart grids.So it is no surprise that smart grids are being touted left, right and center by VCs and technocrats alike and promises to have a huge impact in the immediate direction of high tech and energy industry.

What does all this mean to data centers? Well according to CNetnews, this data overload due to smartgrid implementation will lead to increased demands on data center . The article cites the case of Duke Energy which has contracted with Cisco to build an “information architecture” to handle an anticipated flood of data from its smart-grid programs where it will be installing hundreds of thousands of smart meters in the next two years. Duke Chief Technology Officer anticipates that gathering data from sensors on cables, people’s appliances, and substations could add up to a millions of nodes on the network.

“Once utilities put in smart meters, their data processing and storage needs explode. Instead of sending a person to read meters once a month, information for billing or other applications can be sent back once a day, once an hour, or even every few minutes. If utilities are regulated to reduce peak time usage, their IT needs shoot up even higher. Demand response where a utility can turn down energy use at participating customer sites, requires utilities to poll information regularly from a potential large number of locations. “

Mark Weiner director of Data Center Solutions and a member of a Cisco smart-grid team is quoted in CNet news article:

“The requirements are for huge amounts of data to be involved when you have these more advanced pricing models where the goal is to mitigate power generation,” said Weiner. “The catcher’s mitt for that data is the data center.”

It is logical to conclude from the above that now more than ever there is an even more increased pressure to make your data center technology as energy efficient and cost effective as possible in anticipation of future requirements. For specialized software and hardware deployments that would help you in this effort, contact us at GreenRack Systems.

In datacenters, there is a tendency to overexert and do too much if that makes sense. After all we want to make sure that everything is working well and beyond to avoid problems during uptime. Over provisioning and over allocation often lead to overspending in terms of indulgence in excess power and hardware. Apart from virtualization, increasing storage efficiency and equipment efficiency, Power capping is a new technology that datacenters are looking into right now to address this issue. The concept is logical enough as the name suggests. Power capping sets a cap on the power a server can consume at a given time without always leaving allowances for “in case of maximum load or maximum utilization” and is uniformly applicable for all servers.

Servers come in all shapes, sizes and uses. There are many scenarios that determine their usage like customer requirements and nature of work. So they do not all run to full capacity at all times and some maybe even never as many datacenters choose to not deploy their entire arsenal at the same time. So why do we allocate all this power to them without discerning? Why do we set a standard uniform allocation irrespective of functionality? Also more times than not, the suggested power allocation referred to on hardware pieces are much more than is actually needed. Again everyone is trying to be on the safe side and being careful about not interfering with the performance level, but unwittingly wasting more resources in the bargain. That is why power capping makes a whole lot of sense. Without overstepping the power limit, it allows us to save on space and increase your server density by ascertaining that your servers do not use more than their allocated power at once.

Even though many IT managers are hesitant to experiment lest important applications get interrupted, power has proven to be such an expensive and environmentally unfriendly commodity that many datacenters have decided to take their chances on it .Companies like Intel, IBM, Dell and AMD have released power capping management software to facilitate the process. For example Intel’s Dynamic Power Node Manager Technology along with ancillary management software helps servers running on Xeon 5500 chips to vary platform power on a case by case basis without reducing the performance level through monitoring and assessing real-time data of a server platform. The ceiling on the platform power is thus adjusted to your optimal individual power budget . In case it figures that the budget cannot be met with without interfering with the performance, it will alert you on your choices. Intel also has developed a software addition to the Node Manager called Intel Datacenter Manager, designed to monitor and control power for a group of servers.

Baidu, China’s largest search company has reported success recently using Intel’s power-capping technology. In fact the companies released a study that stated that a datacenter using this technology could save up to 40 watts per system without performance impact translating into as much as 20 percent additional datacenter capacity within the same rack-level power envelope, and a potential rack-density improvement of 20 to 40 percent. Prior to investing in power capping technology, Baidu was leasing racks at a datacenter where the company sought to save money by cramming as many machines as possible into the fewest number of racks. Post Intel’s power capping tools, they were able to establish an optimal workload corresponding to maximum power reduction with least performance loss. Then they determined the approximate amount of power the servers needed to just idle. After narrowing down on the precise number of servers per rack , they successfully established a cap at the rack level bringing down the power consumption from 900W to 750W.

It is always better to understand the full implications of power capping before deciding if power capping technologies in full blast would be a viable option for your data center. A trial run before full scale operation is recommended to protect important applications. Please contact us at Green Rack Systems for further consultation.

The commercial IT vendors make a constant pitch to sell new, better and improved versions of their hardware and software every quarter. But as there is no real motivation for them to promote reuse, apart from the odd brand that exchanges older models for an upgrade or volunteers to recycle for you, we hardly get to hear much on that note.

At Green Rack Systems, we promote reuse of old equipment, as a means to not only lower the stress on landfills but also save some money in the bargain.

Eric Geier in Wi-Fi planet had some great ideas recently about the reuse of old wireless routers. He says:

Don’t throw away your old 802.11g routers just yet. The new slick-looking 802.11n routers may provide higher speeds and performance, but there are still many ways your old gear can help out, including extending your wireless coverage, improving a new network, assisting in offering public Wi-Fi, providing network authentication, or enabling secure remote or site-to-site VPN connections.

Some of these ideas consist of moving the old router around to serve a different purpose. However, most make use of the neat features that replacement firmware projects offer for the popular WRT series from Linksys and many other vendors and brands. Nevertheless, all the ideas can be quite helpful and save you a lot of money.

1) Extend coverage by using it as an AP

Though wireless routers are designed to connect to and distribute an Internet connection, they can be used just for their Wi-Fi capabilities. In other words, you can use it as an access point (AP) instead of a wireless router. If you have a small network with only a single wireless router, this can just about double your wireless coverage—and it’s essentially free.

Like a regular AP, you want to place the makeshift AP in a thoughtful spot to provide the best coverage. You want the wireless coverage boundaries of each router to overlap some. Then you have to run an Ethernet cable from the network’s router or switch all the way to the makeshift AP.

The trick to turn the router into an AP is to turn off the router’s DHCP server and to hook the Ethernet cable to one of the switch ports instead of the old router’s WAN port. For more help with this project, click here.

2) Relieve 802.11n routers from supporting 802.11g

When using 802.11n (or Draft N), it’s best to allow only 802.11n connections on the router. If 802.11g clients connect, they can slow down the newer clients. However, you can set up the old router again, just to support the old clients. You’d use the router as an AP, such as discussed above, except you could place it right next to the new router since you aren’t trying to get more coverage.

So you can better differentiate between the 802.11g and 802.11n signals, you should use different SSIDs or network names. To make sure someone loaded with a 802.11g card doesn’t accidentally connect to the new router, you can change the default wireless mode to 802.11n only.

3)Make it a repeater to take the signal further

Another way you can use an old router to extend your Wi-Fi footprint is to turn it into a repeater. Instead of having to run an Ethernet cable out to an AP, a repeater gets its network connection by listening to the airwaves and retransmitting the Wi-Fi signals between the existing wireless network and the users out of the main coverage area. This is great if you can’t or don’t want to run wires.

Though this range-extending technique doesn’t require running cables, it does require flashing your router with replacement firmware. That’s because routers don’t come with the repeater feature out of the box. If you have a supported router, you can use the DD-WRT, Tomato, or Sveasoft firmware replacement.

4) Use it as a wireless bridge

If you have computers or other network devices that need to be connected to the network but only have an Ethernet port and aren’t close enough to the router, you could convert your old router into a wireless bridge. In bridge mode, the old router would communicate with the new router via the airwaves. Any computers connected to the old router’s Ethernet ports would be just like they were wirelessly connected with the new router themselves.

Like with the repeater mode, to get this bridging capability, you’ll have to use a firmware replacement: DD-WRT, Tomato, or Sveasoft.

For more on wireless bridges, read Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XVI.

5) Offer VPN connections or connect offices together

Another feature provided by some firmware replacements is a built-in VPN server and client. This lets you set up the router for secure remote connections, so you can access files and services or secure your Wi-Fi hotspot connections. Plus if you have multiple locations, you can securely connect them via the Internet. You can find this functionality in the DD-WRT or Sveasoft firmware replacements.

6) Turn it into a hotspot

If you have a business, you could convert your old router into a hotspot gateway. Though you can simply plug in a regular wireless router to offer wireless Internet, you should implement the hotspot features. A captive portal makes users see a disclaimer or advertisements, or make payment, before getting Internet access. Plus some hotspot gateways can manage user accounts if login is required.

Both DD-WRT and Sveasoft include hotspot features. You might also want to check out the CoovaAP firmware replacement and all their free services. Sputnik offers a modified version of DD-WRT along with their paid services.

7) Make it a RADIUS server

If you want to use the enterprise mode of WPA or WPA2, but don’t have a RADIUS server to do the authentication, you may be able to convert your old router into one. If you have a supported router, you can flash it with the TinyPEAP firmware replacement.

Do your own brainstorming

We’ve discussed many ideas on how to use your old gear. Now you can review the features and documentation of the firmware projects to see if there are even more features that interest you. If all else fails, list your equipment on eBay…

Great points! For some more fresh ideas on recycling and reuse of your older datacenter hardware, please contact us at sales@GreenRackSystems.com

In December 2008, a survey of Emerson Network Power and Liebert data center users found that respondents planned to double the power densities in their data centers.The Data Center Users Group (The DCUG is a group of approximately 2,000 influential data centers, IT and facility managers founded by Emerson Network Power in 2003. ) surveyed about 150 data center managers focusing on data center efficiency. Energy efficiency was one of the top three concerns for nearly half (47%) of survey respondents, showing a remarkable increase compared to previous years.

Some of the other findings were:
• 61% were cutting their budget due to economic conditions, and 35% were delaying capital projects. Even so more than 75 percent of survey respondents are still planning for changes to take place within their facilities.
• 46% said adequate monitoring was a top three concern.
• The average kW per rack has increased from 6 to 7.4 over the past three years, a more than 20% jump.
• Data center managers have improved efficiency through airflow improvements such as blanking panels and hot-aisle cold-aisle containment and by using variable cooling that responds to need rather than going full blast all the time.
• The top concern of data center managers was heat density.
• Data center managers were unwilling to compromise availability for efficiency. Data center managers will be taking into account corporate initiatives to improve energy usage throughout the data center; yet, this initiative is challenged by the understanding that availability remains the top priority.
• When budgets permit, more than half (52 percent) of respondents indicated future facilities would be designed to support densities of between 10 kW and 20 kW per rack – significantly higher than the 7.4 kW average supported by current facilities. Some of the reasons they cited for moving to higher density data centers was to save facility space, support blade servers and reduce energy costs.
• Energy usage strategy was still missing. Even though one in four respondents had completed an analysis of the efficiency of their data center equipment thereby exhibiting high awareness, only 28 percent of survey respondents had a documented strategy to reduce energy usage.
• Amid the deployment of new technologies and subsequent maintenance of the data center infrastructure, almost half of the respondents indicated that the complexity of their cooling, monitoring and power systems is increasing.
• More than half (55 percent) of the survey respondents turned to power and cooling assessments to help with complexities in the data center. Through these assessments, 74 percent evaluated cooling reliability, 54 percent energy consumption and 51 percent expansion plans.

The results of the survey are extremely encouraging in terms of the awareness and knowledge exhibited by IT managers to adopt energy efficient strategies, identify problem areas and show promising initiative to increase efficiency. But the results also clearly indicate that majority of the facilities are found lacking in terms of having a methodical, clear cut plan to implement changes. The problem might of course be budget cuts. It might also be lack of enough personnel to manage and monitor the renovations. As the results show, data centers might need a little extra help to grasp the mounting complexities due to increasingly sophisticated computing to attack cooling and power problems. That is precisely why a professional consultation and a little outside help will come in handy to help assess, plan and execute precise measures to maximize energy efficiency. Contact us at Green Rack Systems for improving data center control, analysis and overall efficient management, especially in the area of energy management, and expert guidance tailored to your Data center’s functionality, goal and budget.

Wired Real Estate Group , a data center planning and procurement firm, has launched a free colocation and data center search listing service to support the firm’s Brokerage Practice. With the new data center listing service, firms can now easily identify new retail, wholesale and shell data center sites, including mapping of street locations. The service is free, with no advertising or registration. The service was conceived to help IT organizations identify new colocation and data center real estate availability .Investment in data center real estate has slowed due to debt financing leading to limited colocation and data center supply growth. But because of changes in computing power, regulatory compliance, and network costs, demand for colocation and data center real estate has remained strong. Wired’s search and listing service is intended to create efficiency by allowing colocation and data center users to search, map, and qualify sites directly. For listing your data center with the WiredRE, send an email to “listings@wiredre.com”>. For more information about Green Rack’s co-location service, contact our sales team at 408-213-8144/ sales@GreenRackSystems.com

In recent times, there has been little that has created the kind of buzz and momentum in the server industry segment as Virtualization. With good reason too! Virtualization has almost single handedly changed the way small to medium businesses conduct their operations. The concept is pretty logical, really and makes a whole lot of common sense when you think about it. Simply put, Virtualization is the method of having several operating systems function within just one server. Each operating system could be performing totally independent unrelated tasks without compromising on the quality of the computing. That is, both the data processing and storage is done within one server as opposed to a traditional system where the network is distributed in an elaborate design comprising of several servers and workstations all attached to their own separate hardware components. In a virtual environment all the physical resources such as additional servers, PCs, storage, hard drives, processors, mother boards etc are totally eliminated. Not only are we saving big time in hardware investment, we are also avoiding excess maintenance costs .With increased server density, we are better able to pinpoint the precise location of hardware failure thereby aiding quicker disaster recovery and reduced unplanned downtime all leading to scalable , more manageable . Employee productivity therefore increases as no one is waiting around endlessly for network issues to be resolved. Consolidation also improves data security significantly. In the context of eco-friendliness, fewer servers mean lesser green house gas emissions. So we are able to contribute towards a cleaner environment. It is sometimes surprising to many that only about 30 percent of the total power used in a server is consumed by the processor itself. The rest goes towards appeasing the cooling systems, memory and power supply. Streamlining the network results in a drastic reduction in power consumption putting green back in your pocket where it rightly belongs. With all the money saved, organizations will be able to reallocate and reprioritize funds to focus on increasing their competitive advantage in the marketplace. For effective virtualization solutions and cost effective green computing consultation, contact our expert team at sales@GreenRackSystems.com / 408-213-8144

According to recent studies the annual energy consumption of servers in the US is of the same order of magnitude as television sets. Europe fares slightly better, being that servers there are the second largest energy consumer among IT equipment following TVs. Energy costs for the operation of servers are expected to exceed costs for hardware by 2015. Considering the enormous global impact this has on our carbon footprint, governments across the globe have been working closely with the industry the past several years to put forth a scalable energy performance rating system for data centers. Together they have proposed several radical measures to improve server efficiency such as eliminating redundant servers, embracing energy efficient models, enabling power management on 100% of applicable servers, server consolidation etc

The project Efficient Servers conducted within the European Union programme Intelligent Energy Europe is focused on the high saving potentials due to efficient server technology and promoting the market for energy efficient servers. The project believes that by the use of highly efficient server systems, energy and cost savings between 20 and 70% can be achieved in the hardware and infrastructure. It advocates technical measures such as energy efficient hardware- and software components as well as a total consolidation or virtualisation of the server system. By active implementation of these methods, Efficient Server solutions offer the benefits of
• Significant cost reduction due to reduction of electricity consumption
• Lower service costs
• Reduced energy consumption and costs in the server infrastructure

In the United States, in a land mark move towards the cause of server energy management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently launched its ENERGY STAR for Enterprise Servers certification. EPA has more than 15-year history of promoting energy efficiency in IT equipment as well as commercial buildings. Through the ENERGY STAR program, EPA certifies a wide array of IT products, including personal computers, imaging equipment, printers, and monitors.This proposed server Energy star ratings will include all non-blade servers with one to four processors and at least one hard drive to apply for Energy Star certification as highly energy efficient devices. According to their website, Energy Star for Servers will measure three main categories of performance: managing power supply performance, functioning in a virtualized environment, and energy benchmarks for measuring and reporting server energy use.Blade servers are not yet covered under this first version of the specification, nor are servers with no installed hard drives .The EPA is apparently still in the process of formulating a method for assessing traditional servers. You can find further details at http://EnergyStar.gov.

Green Rack Systems is fully committed to the cause of global initiatives in eco-friendly servers and welcomes the EPA‘s Energy Star ratings system in the server market.