Adaptec Brings Green Power Management to IT Storage

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MILPITAS, Calif. -- From Hotmail to law firms, search engines to one office's print servers, companies of all types are finding their data storage needs on the rise. And with that rise in demand comes a rise in energy costs, especially when demand comes rarely or only during work hours.

Adaptec today has announced the first phase of its Green Power Initiative: a new, customizable RAID controller designed to keep drives from running at maximum capacity -- and using maximum energy -- except when needed.

The new technology, which Adapted dubbed the Intelligent Power Management program is now built into all of the company's Series 2 and Series 5 RAID controllers, and is compatible with at least 122 different hard drives, according to Suresh Panikar, Adaptec's director of marketing. As a result, it is suited for a host of different needs.

"If you already have an energy-efficient system, this will make it better," Panikar explained. "If you have an older system, it's not limited to specific types of drives, either."

Panikar said that Adaptec developed the product specifically for use with companies as they grow into and beyond their data center's capacity. Because demand for storage and electricity are already regularly outstripping capacity, when IT managers are looking to make their data centers deeper, this kind of power management becomes invaluable.

The controller works by spinning down unused drives, going from normal operation mode to an idle, power-off state. Some drives also feature a standby-mode, although at this point that is limited solely to drives from Hitachi. Adaptec estimates that shifting from full power to idle reduces a drive's energy use from 10-12 watts to 3 watts.

The software that manages the controller allows IT departments to activate the power management on rack-by-rack basis; because different server types have different access, upgrade and backup needs, the software that runs the controller can be configured to allow maximum usage when it is needed.

IT managers can then designate times for spinning up or powering down the drives -- some drives need to operate at maximum capacity from 9 to 5 during the work week only, while others require 24-7 operation and still others are used only rarely for system backups.

Based on real-world trials of the controller, Adaptec estimates that if companies install the controller on all their drives, they can save from 60 to 70 percent on energy and cooling costs, suggesting that power management for data storage can be a key part of a company's green IT or overall environmental strategy.

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