A zombie server is one that is running but is either not actually configured to a network, or one that hasn't been accessed and used for over six months. These servers — and there are millions of them, by one estimate — are sucking up lots of power while doing absolutely nothing. It is a lurking environmental problem that doesn’t get much discussion outside of the close-knit community of data-center operators and server-room geeks. Think of Facebook, Google, Instagram, and other social media. These companies have huge data storage centers. In 2010, the latest year for which there are estimates, data centers burned about 2% of all electricity used in the U.S. By one study’s calculation, there are more than 3.6 million comatose servers in the U.S. Keeping them powered up requires the services of an estimated 1.44 gigawatts of generating capacity—equivalent to three big power plants.
For example, an audit of AOL's servers found that a third of its servers simply weren’t needed, and another third ran software that could be moved to the cloud. The company ended up decommissioning 14,000 servers and slashing its data-center power consumption 35%, according to Chris Blelloch, AOL vice president, global infrastructure and platform services. Comatose servers, he says, are “most definitely a real problem,” in particular for companies that are more than five years old. To a large extent, it is a management problem. On one side are the IT people, who set up the servers and keep them humming along. And then there are the operations folks, like Mr. Nally, who supply the cooling and the power and manage the electricity bill. The IT workers—those in the best position to know which computers are ready to be turned off—don’t have a strong incentive to decommission their comatose boxes.
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