Reality: I commonly hear that green IT applies only to the largest of companies. The reality is that PCFE issues or green topics are relevant to environments of all sizes, from the largest of enterprises to the small/medium business (SMB), to the remote office branch office (ROBO), to the small office/home office (SOHO) or "virtual office," all the way to the digital home and consumer.
Myth: All computer storage is the same, and powering disks off solves PCFE issues.
Reality: There are many different types of computer storage, with various performance, capacity, power consumption, and cost attributes. Although some storage can be powered off, other storage that is needed for online access does not lend itself to being powered off and on. For storage that needs to be always online and accessible, energy efficiency is achieved by doing more with less -- that is, boosting performance and storing more data in a smaller footprint using less power.
Myth: Servers are the main consumer of electrical power in IT data centers.
Reality: In the typical IT data center, on average, 50 percent of electrical power is consumed by cooling, with the balance used for servers, storage, networking, and other aspects. However, in many environments, particularly processing or computation-intensive environments, servers in total (including power for cooling and the equipment) can be a major power draw.