WHAT'S ENERGY STAR?

By K.C. Bishoppe

Energy Star certification went into effect in May. It promotes energy efficiency and is offered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Specifications for Energy Star vary depending on numerous factors including configuration and server size. Certification also requires that idle servers cannot exceed specific energy consumption standards for its classification.

Clean comparisons don't exist at this point and users who want specific information on their server's energy consumption will have to do their own measuring.

Users know now that Energy Star servers are more efficient both active an idle than non-Energy Star servers. Currently, the requirement focuses on making sure the power supply is efficient but doesn't tell you what type of workload you can do for each unit of energy consumed. Instead, the specifications for Energy Star measure whether a server's power supply has good efficiency across a range of workloads.

Energy Star officials are currently working the server community to find the best way to make more direct comparisons between servers. Their hopes are to be able to integrate that into the second version of the program.