Easynet goes green with data centre consolidation

Easynet, the Internet service provider owned by BSkyB, has increased its energy efficiency by up to 30 per cent, following investment in new data centre technologies.

Easynet is joining companies such as BT in using virtualisation to increase utilisation rates across its IT infrastructure. Easynet will also use utility computing and dynamic bandwidth provisioning capabilities to reduce server loads and cut energy costs.

According to Alan Ryan, Easynet global alliances director, Easynet is already carbon neutral. However, the business wanted to update its data centre design at every level, from physical building controls to individual processor capacities. The company aims to raise IT usage levels to 85 per cent, whilst boosting energy efficiency by up to 30 per cent and reducing the load on servers by between 30 and 60 per cent.

"We face the same challenges as any other global organisation in terms of cost reduction, operational efficiency and better energy use," said Ryan. "But our data centres also serve our customers directly, or through our partners, who are increasingly offering data centre consolidation services themselves."

Easynet is rolling out new technology to regulate power consumption on its HP ProLiant servers, as well as virtualisation software and sharing of storage and server capacity through a utility-based computing model.

It is also working with HP to ensure that 95 per cent of its property portfolio runs on renewable energy. Easynet also said it would reduce the power used by air conditioning in its buildings and data centres by using cooler outside air, or "free cooling" to regulate temperatures. It will also switch to eco-friendly refrigerant gases.

And the company also plans to reduce the number of physical servers running its systems.

"Our first major internal project is to consolidate our multiple email servers onto one virtual email server hosted in Germany, where most of our data centre and hosting expertise is based," said Ryan. "Next, we'll look at consolidating our CRM [customer relationship management systems], with the obvious benefits of improved partner and customer service as a result."

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