DTCC Shrinks Its Carbon Footprint
DTCC, like most major global corporations, is moving on multiple fronts to shrink its carbon footprint, embedding conservation and energy efficiency into the organization’s business model.
DTCC’s green initiatives run the gamut, from reducing energy consumption in data centers, to trimming the air-conditioning and heating bills, to using environmentally safe products to clean its offices. Many of the changes being instituted are yielding additional benefits, including lower corporate costs, enhanced systems productivity, fewer hardware and software purchases and a more people-friendly work environment.
“Energy efficiency and sustainability are natural extensions of DTCC’s commitment to bring efficiencies to the industry through all our services,” said William Aimetti, DTCC president and COO. “We are actively implementing technologies and policies that not only curb our power consumption, but also strengthen our infrastructure, while ultimately reducing our costs of doing business.”
Virtues of ‘virtualization’
Data centers in the U.S. consumed 1.5% of the country’s energy in 2006, according to one industry estimate. What’s more, energy usage by data center servers and related infrastructure equipment globally doubled between 2000 and 2005, a separate study found. These trends present organizations like DTCC, whose data centers operate 24/7/365, an opportunity to make sizeable energy savings.
A key aspect of DTCC’s drive to operate more energy-efficient data centers is “virtualization” technology, which cuts electrical loads by allowing one server to consolidate the work of multiple servers. “Typically, about 15% of a server’s capacity is used, yet you are paying the energy cost of full capacity,” said Edward Wengler, DTCC vice president, Information Services. “Virtualization allows us to use up to 85% of the capacity, which translates into a big energy savings.”
And virtualization has added virtues for data centers. It ultimately reduces the need for new equipment and trims cooling requirements. “Now, when DTCC is looking to add a new server, we ask the question, Can it be virtualized without impacting the safety and soundness of DTCC’s infrastructure?’” Wengler said.
DTCC estimates that transitioning to virtual servers will enable it to consolidate 25 to 30 individual servers onto a single server.
Currently, the company has about 550 servers in the Microsoft Windows environment and the goal is to decommission approximately 115, or roughly 20%, of these in 2008, said Wengler, who oversees DTCC’s Windows operating systems.
DTCC also runs more than 500 Unix servers, and the first wave of virtualization will result in 31 of these units being decommissioned in 2008, said Krishnamurthy Vaidyanathan, DTCC vice president, Information Services, who oversees the Unix-run units. Coinciding with this initiative, DTCC is replacing Unix servers that are four or five years old with new, more energy-efficient servers. The newer versions are also more powerful and run the applications better, according to Vaidyanathan.
Greener Data Centers
DTCC is working closely on developing industry standards for green data centers with the Uptime Institute, a U.S.-based think-tank that advises companies on business and technology issues related to reliability and energy efficiency in computing environments.
Donald J. Donahue, DTCC vice president, Information Technology, who is a 2008 Uptime Institute Fellow, served on the panel of judges for the Institute’s 2008 Green IT Awards, which honor organizations that are pioneering energy efficiency in their data centers.
This year’s top award went to Sun Microsystems; winners in the financial services industry included Bank of Montreal and Nationwide Mutual Insurance.
The engineers weigh in
Data centers not only draw huge electricity loads, those loads generate tremendous amounts of heat. And, because overheating can cause computers to malfunction, it is critical for DTCC to keep the data centers cool at all times. Temperature control creates another eco-challenge for DTCC’s engineers because, traditionally, cooling systems have been huge energy-guzzlers.
“Reliability is the primary focus of our data centers,” said Alfred Lane, DTCC manager, Facilities Engineering. “Now, while ensuring that systems reliability is never compromised, we also are integrating green principles into the management of our facilities. New technologies and methods of operation allow reliability and efficiency to go hand in hand.” This approach includes finding lower-energy alternatives for keeping the data centers cool.
“Virtualization will provide secondary benefits for us,” said Lane. “Fewer servers mean a lower electrical load and reduced need for air conditioning.”
The company has also tackled cooling costs with the installation of a new temperature monitoring system at one of its data centers. This technology has allowed DTCC to shrink the number of operating air conditioning units to 18 from 30, reducing the annual energy bill substantially.
“The new system gives us precise temperature readings at different locations in the data center, which enables us to better control air conditioning and maintain appropriate temperatures throughout,” said Lane. For example, an area where equipment is densely packed requires more air conditioning than a space with less equipment, he explained. “With the temperature controls, we can automatically turn the cooling units on and off as needed.”
Another plus is that DTCC was able to fully recoup the cost of installing the new monitoring system, thanks to a power reduction rebate offered by a state government agency.
Other green initiatives being evaluated on the engineering front include cutting the frequency of testing backup generators to twice monthly from weekly to reduce fuel consumption, polluting emissions and wear-and-tear on the engines; lowering the thermostats during cold weather in all unoccupied areas of the data centers; and turning off equipment and lighting that is not in use, where possible.
PC world
DTCC now has approximately 4,500 PCs in all its locations, making computer usage another area of environmental opportunity. Christopher Lord, DTCC vice president, Information Services, who oversees a green program targeting this area of the business, gave several examples of energy-conscious initiatives.
One is the implementation of a technology called Wake-on-LAN across all DTCC locations. “Wake-on-LAN allows us to power down PCs when they are not being used and then wake them up when needed,” said Lord. “It also strengthens security in that we can wake up sleeping computers when we need to install immediate security software upgrades.”
The Wake-on-LAN implementation, which will be completed this year, is expected to generate more than $200,000 in annual energy savings.
The company also is conducting a pilot test to replace certain desktop computers with an eco-friendly alternative called “thin clients,” which consume as little as 5% of the wattage consumed by standard PCs. A thin client achieves these savings by using a central server for most processing activities with as little hardware and software as possible at the user’s location, which reduces the maintenance, upgrading and operational costs associated with PCs.
To assess the viability of this technology, DTCC has distributed 24 thin clients to New York-based employees. “We are testing the thin client with a wide spectrum of employees to see where it fits and where it doesn’t,” said Lord, noting that they are not well suited for individuals who use many complex software applications. “For employees who only need a handful of applications, such as Microsoft Office and a web browser, thin is a very good fit.”
A third initiative entails replacing about half of the company’s CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors with more energy-efficient LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors this year. The changeover, which starts in June, will yield energy savings of $30 per year per monitor, once the initial replacement costs are absorbed. “LCDs are also user-friendly,” said Lord. “They have clearer pictures and produce less eye fatigue.”
Green workplace
DTCC has a host of green initiatives in the areas of construction, building services and furniture at all of its locations, said Anthony Portannese, DTCC managing director, Corporate Services. This includes paper, cardboard, light bulb, battery and carpet recycling programs; light sensor installations; environmentally friendly paint, carpet installation methods and cleaning products; and training, extermination and chemical disposal programs.
DTCC also requires its building vendors to use less toxic and less volatile products to improve quality in the workspace. “Employees spend a lot of time at the office, and our goal is to make the workplace as safe and as toxic-free as possible,” said Portannese. @