Data centre managers lack any real understanding of their IT infrastructure's energy costs and the demands they are placing on it, says new research from Loughborough University and on365, a specialist in the planning, installing, management and optimisation of infrastructure and utility services.

The survey questioned 87 UK-based data centre professionals, IT staff, and finance staff between June and August this year. It found that responsibility for data centre operating and electricity costs was split between job functions, with the electricity budget mainly held by FMs (53%) with fewer than one quarter of IT personnel (23%) controlling it and finance professionals (23%) having equal responsibility for this area. Asked who actually saw their data centre's electricity bills, only 44% of those interviewed said they did while a majority 56% said they did not.

Asked whether they could easily measure data centre efficiency metrics, a clear majority 58% said they could not. Asked what information they provided to individual customers or users within their data centre, more than half of interviewees said they provided no information whatsoever. In addition, half of interviewees are worried that running energy efficiency programmes will add to their capital costs in future.

Just ahead of the opening of registration for the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) trading scheme - affecting the UK's largest companies and government organizations and their suppliers - only one fifth of interviewees said they were aware of current legislation or taxation related to energy efficiency.

Iain Phillips, Head of Computer Science, and Tracy Bhamra, Reader in Sustainable Design, at Loughborough University, who conducted the research, said: "Data centre managers are having to share responsibilities over energy management or appear not to be included in the process at all. This clearly complicates their daily task of providing 24/7 high availability systems while cutting variable costs such as systems energy demands and therefore the carbon emission costs of their operation."

on365's marketing director Chris Smith, said: "IT and facility managers are in effect being excluded from advancing best energy efficiency practice. They need to be able to identify new ways to manage down energy costs while maintaining 24/7 IT system performance. This will mean working more closely with departmental colleagues and customer on business needs, facilities planning, utilities and energy management as time goes on."

He added: "In the short term, data centre staff need to be organising system audits to identify energy efficiency improvements. This could include immediate ‘nil cost' measures to reduce energy uptake by both IT infrastructure and cooling equipment."