Energy Star spec for Data Center Storage finalized

Come December 2, vendors of datacenter storage hardware will be able to mark their equipment as Energy Star certified if they have passed the testing requirements for the newly approved specification from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The Energy Star Data Center Storage Specification Version 1.0 joins the existing datacenter focused specifications for servers and UPS systems already in place.

The certified equipment must be tested using the Storage Networking Industry Association Emerald™ Power Efficiency Measurement Specification v2.0.2, which defines the metrics used to measure energy efficiency and energy consumption. Additionally, the specification provides for the following:

• Introduces an approach to product families that allows both homogenous and heterogeneous storage device configurations to be certified.
  
• Includes requirements focused on power supplies, capacity optimizing methods, and standard performance data measurement and output.
  
• Allows for variations within product families to incorporate newer storage devices and other system improvements over the life of the storage product, striking a balance between additional testing burden and representative test data.

The SNIA testing includes the focus on both efficiency and optimization for the devices submitted for testing and includes testing scripts and benchmarks for product evaluation.

While Energy Star is not the ultimate in energy efficiency technology designs, it provides for a good level of standardized implementation that can be added to the checklist of requirements for products being purchased for the datacenter, especially in light of the move towards more energy efficient computing.