A Smarter Algorithm Could Cut Energy Use in Data Centers by 35 Percent
Storing video and other files more intelligently reduces the demand on servers in a data center.
New research suggests that data centers could significantly cut their electricity usage simply by storing fewer copies of files, especially videos. For now the work is theoretical, but over the next year, researchers at Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs and MIT plan to test the idea, with an eye to eventually commercializing the technology. It could be implemented as software within existing facilities. “This approach is a very promising way to improve the efficiency of data centers,” says Emina Soljanin, a researcher at Bell Labs….
