(SPONSORED) As we adopt hybrid work environments for good, here’s how storage leaders can improve data center success and longevity while lowering total cost of ownership.
(SPONSORED) It’s no surprise the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation for data centers around the world. With the stress of managing continuous data growth, the surge to the cloud, and today’s diverse workloads and applications, total cost of ownership (TCO) remains critical … and it’s complex. How efficiently and effectively enterprises manage data and deploy data infrastructure often determines their success and longevity. Most often, this also determines not only who thrives, but who merely survives. At Western Digital, we work with the largest search, e-commerce, social media, and other cloud giants around the globe. Here’s what they tell us: Don’t shop on price alone. You must peel the layers as acquisition cost is just a part of TCO. There are many other aspects driving TCO, including location, density or space, performance, quality and reliability, cooling, weight, utilization, QoS, infrastructure management and more. And these can vary widely depending on the type of data center. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to TCO and which factors are most important. However, here are some insights from the largest cloud and data center customers on the TCO factors you can’t afford to overlook. Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Energy Every watt matters. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, some of the world’s largest data centers consume more than 100 megawatts of power capacity, or enough to power 80,000 U.S. households. Cooling accounts for approximately 30% to 50% of total energy consumption in a data center. One way to save on power costs with storage is to use helium-filled hard drives instead of air-filled hard drives. Because helium is one-seventh the density of air there is less turbulence inside the drive. This delivers myriad advantages such as fitting more disks in the same 3.5-inch form factor, less drag on the spinning disks, and ultimately lower power. When comparing 18TB helium-filled hard drives with 10TB air-filled drives, the helium drives bring greater power efficiency with 30% lower operating power and a 61% reduction in watts-per-TB. Make the Most of Your Space As we’ve seen in the news, many hyperscale data centers are moving to cooler climates or wide-open spaces to reap TCO benefits. Even if you do not have the luxury of physically moving your data center, slot tax and floor space should be top-of-mind, as your current real estate comes at a premium.
