Nutanix launches Carbon and Power Estimator to illuminate environmental impact

The Nutanix Carbon and Power Estimator, a tool created to give organisations insights into the environmental effects of their infrastructure choices, has been released by Nutanix. By calculating annual power usage and emissions for several Nutanix systems based on Nutanix Validated Designs, this new tool enables businesses to make decisions that are in line with their sustainability objectives. Nutanix software and solutions enable decreased carbon footprint, smooth resource scalability, and effective workload transfer across on-premises and cloud environments by optimising IT infrastructure.

According to the 5th Annual Enterprise Cloud Index, an overwhelming 92% of IT decision makers now prioritize sustainability more than ever before. This shift is attributed to the surge in global regulations and mandates, prompting a heightened focus on ecological responsibility. As enterprises increasingly embrace sustainability, attention is turning to IT as a pivotal sector for driving energy efficiency and emission reduction through equipment upgrades and operational improvements.

The Carbon and Power Estimator equips users with a comprehensive report that vividly illustrates how infrastructure choices can impact power consumption and emissions. By inputting variables related to workloads, data center efficiency, and geographic location, organizations can envisage the effects of their IT decisions on their environmental goals.

“Understanding what drives carbon and power consumption is an important first step for many enterprises looking to advance on their sustainability journey,” said Faiz Shakir, Vice President & Managing Director, Sales, Nutanix India and SAARC at Nutanix. “The Nutanix Carbon and Power Estimator can help enterprises take initiative by educating organizations on factors that can influence their environmental impact.”

Key features of the Nutanix Carbon and Power Estimator include:

● Assessment of Power and Emissions: Users can explore the effects of various factors on power consumption and emissions for Nutanix solutions. For instance, the tool could reveal that deploying Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure for general virtualization, with 300 virtual machines, in a UK data center boasting a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 2.0, results in approximately 68 metric tons of carbon dioxide (MTCO2) annually. Reducing the PUE to 1.5 could cut emissions by 17 MTCO2 to 51 MTCO2.

● Geographic Impact: Geography significantly influences sustainability outcomes. The Nutanix Carbon and Power Estimator exemplifies the difference in carbon emissions when relocating workloads to regions powered by low carbon energy sources versus fossil fuels. Relocating the aforementioned virtualization scenario to a Swedish data center, with its reliance on low carbon energy, could reduce emissions from 51 MTCO2 to just two MTCO2.

● Hyper-Converged vs. 3-Tier Infrastructure: The tool enables users to compare power consumption between Nutanix’s hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) and traditional 3-Tier (SAN-based) infrastructure. A downloadable report demonstrates the potential power savings achieved by eliminating proprietary SAN components, with Nutanix HCI showcasing substantial power efficiency.

Simon Sowerby, Technical Services Coordinator, City of Unley shared: “Our previous three-tier system consisted of about ten racks of compute equipment, and we have been able to reduce that to a quarter rack. Our power expenses have come down about 70%, which is working out to tens of thousands of dollars - and 24,000kg of CO2 emissions - saved per year.”