Virtualization, dedupe and low-power servers are all hailed as the vanguards of the green data center. Indeed, they are key elements in driving energy efficiency in the data center but there’s one that can have a bigger impact: energy management.

It turns out, according to KDA Consulting’s Katherine Austin, that data center infrastructure (power distribution and cooling) can out-consume servers and storage.  I wrote an article on Earth2Tech, based on Austin’s report “Green Data Center Design: Strategies & Players” (subscription required), on some startups that are leveraging wireless sensors to help IT organizations get a handle on managing power.  Here’s a snippet.

HP, for instance, relies on SynapSense
for its Environmental Edge monitoring system. SynapSense, a startup
launched by Intel’s Peter Van Deventer and UC Davis computer science
professor Raju Pandey, makes the wireless sensor technology that feeds
power and cooling data to real-time visualization software. Armed with
this information, administrators can save power by reducing cooling to
levels that allow equipment to operate safely without overheating.

Read the rest here.  Thanks Katherine and Katie!