In research conducted in 2011 we determined the carbon footprint of the Dell PowerEdge R710, a typical high-volume, 2U rack server that is representative of a range of similar server products. The total carbon footprint of the server is approximately 6 tons CO2eq when used in the US. The GHG emissions from use account for over 90 percent of the total life-cycle impact. The carbon footprint of a data center can be massively reduced by virtualizing under-utilized servers into only a few highly-utilized ones. Two scenarios looking at different refresh cycles and their impact on the carbon footprint support our view that an aggressive refresh cycle makes sense if the power use decreases by at least 10% generation over generation. The case is even clearer cut if the workload can be kept constant and the increased performance level enables that the number of servers can be reduced at every refresh.
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