At its Munich head office, Retarus recently passed the mandatory DIN EN 16247-1:2012 energy audit with an outstanding result.
The power usage effectiveness (PUE) of our Munich data center was determined to be an excellent 1.25. The audit report elaborates: “The Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE) represents the ratio of the power consumed by IT hardware in relation to the overall consumption of power in the data center. The higher the value turns out to be, the better. […] The inverse value is known as power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). This figure is generally acknowledged to be the most critical KPI for data centers. […] The DCiE value of Retarus’ data center amounts to 75% of the total electricity consumed (including office and lobby rooms). Without taking the offices and workspaces into consideration, the figure is 80%, meaning a PUE of 1.25. Comparatively, these values suggest that Retarus is in the upper range as far as the power efficiency of the data center (excluding offices) is concerned, and a lot of the potential for improvement has already been exhausted. […] This includes, for instance, the optimization of server utilization through virtualization and efficient data storage (utilizing energy-saving applications), procuring efficient IT hardware, using power adaptors with a high degree of efficiency, etc.”
“We are very proud of the outcome – a PUE value of 1.25 is truly impressive for a data center in our bracket,” says Uwe Geuss, Director Operations at Retarus. For the most part, one typically encounters values of around 1.7 (lower values are better). “This also clearly shows that not only are the enterprise communication services running in our specialized data center more reliable than those run by companies themselves, but also more environmentally friendly,” adds Geuss.
Of course, we’ve still got some room for improvement, such as updating light sources in the data center and anterooms, plus even more efficient USPs. “In addition, most potential savings can be achieved through optimizing user behavior and sensitizing employees,” the audit report goes on to say.
A bit more background: More than 60 percent of the energy consumption at the Munich headquarters arises directly from the data center, while an additional twelve percent is attributed to the air-conditioning of the data center. Both the data center and several other air-conditioned rooms are cooled by way of a borehole groundwater cooling system. Retarus sources the rest of the electricity required for the data center from 100% green power – already since 2007. And without exception, our electricity is drawn from certified hydroelectric power plants.
