Average retailer wastes over £1million per annum on excess energy usage in data centres

On average, top UK retailers are overspending by £1.25 million a year on the power needed to run their data centres which can equate to 50 per cent of total data centre costs and 10 per cent of their total energy bills. These shock findings are revealed in new research commissioned by data centre infrastructure specialist RichardsoNEyres which also shows that 83 per cent of the UK’s top retailers are making rising energy prices and wasted costs a top priority for 2008/9.

The research, undertaken in association with industry analysts IDL, profiled organisations from the UK’s top 100 retailers to highlight the main data centre challenges they are facing. The study found that IT capacity management has not kept pace with the growth in data due to online sales, new store openings and the expansion of CRM and ERP. For 60 per cent of study respondents, data centre capacity was a priority area for improvement during this year and this trend is likely to increase.

Another crucial implication of an ageing data centre infrastructure is its impact on being able to meet new business standards. To successfully meet the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System standard, retailers will need to conduct a data centre power and emissions review. Respondents admit that they currently take an informal approach to environmental management procedures, but almost one third acknowledge that adopting this standard is high on their company’s agenda.

“Spiralling energy costs and the need to demonstrate good Corporate Social Responsibility means that retailers need their IT infrastructure to catch-up with the best practice demonstrated elsewhere in British industry” said Adam Kemp, Director, RichardsoNEyres.

He continued: “There are many simple, yet effect steps retailers can take to make their data centres run more efficiently. For example, applying virtualisation to the data centre can reduce energy consumption by up to 50%.”