Tracking and Managing Data Center Energy

I ran across two new tools tonight to help manage and track energy in the data center. On Monday IBM announced Energy Management software that is backed by nine big players.

"IBM is combining the new energy management software with partner solutions to provide customers with a comprehensive view of energy consumption across the enterprise -- not just in data centers but also in non-IT assets such as air conditioning equipment, power distribution units, lighting, and security systems."

Check out the CNN Money article here

Yesterday Federal Computer Week reported that the Department of Energy will soon unveil new tools to help data centers track total energy consumption. The data center Energy Profiler software suite will help calculate how energy is being used and identify potential cost savings.

Check out the FCW article here

Happy Belated Earth Day

I have been in Madison, Wisconsin the last few days and incredibly busy, so I haven't had much time to blog, let alone get my regular web surfing fix. I have come across a ton of Earth Day press releases and stories about Green Data Centers. Even though I'm sure you may have read some if not all of these, I thought I would just link to the items I ran across this week:

• "How Green is Green" research study by Digital Realty Trust
• The Green Data Center E-book from SearchDataCenter.com
• Hitachi's "Greenest Enterprise-class Data Center"
• Cassatt Data Center Energy survey
• Emerson Network Power and the EPA team up
• The Green Grid: Collaboration with EPA and SNIA

Cassatt - Gartner's Cool Vendor 2008

A "cool" company on my list for some time is Cassatt. When I first came across the company and its product offering I was royally confused. Based on my experience and use / observed use of servers, their product was just plain silly. In the right environment though, I have now come to see how it is truly a unique approach to energy savings and cool software on top of that.

Gartner's Cool Vendor Report lists those companies that are Insightful, innovative and intriguing. They recently named Cassatt and Tata Consultancy Services to their "Cool Vendors in Sourcing and IT Services 2008" report.

"The Cassatt solution is based around the Cassatt Active Response product line, software to improve the operation of large data centers in manageable stages. Customers can start by increasing data center energy efficiency, using Cassatt’s software to safely and intelligently power off servers when they aren’t needed. This approach, based on the Cassatt Active Power Management™ technology, can reduce power usage in your data center by 30 to 50 percent while complementing your existing energy efficiency activity."

Check out the press release here

Uptime Institute - Data Center Greeness

As soon as I finish posting about the Emerson white paper and how there is so much press on the topic, the very next thing I read is about a new paper from the Uptime Charrette titled Four Metrics Define Data Center Greenness

It looks to be very good (as most all of their content is), but I'll have to find another time to dig into it.

Check it out here

Emerson Network Power - Energy Logic

Emerson published a press release regarding their Energy Logic road map - a new approach to data center energy optimization. Energy Logic centers on the "cascade effect" (throughout data center infrastructure) and is based on Emerson's research and modeling.


A lot has been written lately about energy savings, and the whole green movement, but this approach helps to quantify energy savings and sheds light on potential ROI.

“When we released our report earlier this year, we stressed that energy reductions could be achieved with the proper planning and implementation of efficient technologies that exist today,” said Andrew Fanara of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “We encourage companies like Emerson Network Power to share any and all expertise that helps the data center community reduce their energy usage.”

Their white paper titled Energy Logic: Reducing Data Center Energy Consumption by Creating Savings that Cascade Across Systems divulges the Energy Logic approach. Among the sea of energy efficiency / green literature, news and white papers, this one has some meat to it. It covers:

• Energy Consumption (where it goes)
• The approach - including the cascading/sequential approach of how certain best practices have the greatest impact
• Some nice tables and diagrams of Energy Logic applied (I'm a visual person) :)
• The ten Energy Logic Actions (more pretty graphs and pictures)
• Assumptions and timing benefits

Overall this is a very good white paper and one I'll keep in my reference pile

The white paper can be viewed here

HP's Dynamic Smart Cooling

Just a quick link to an article about HP debuting their new 'smart' India data center. They claim it has achieved a 40% energy savings due to using their technologies and methodologies.

Check out the San Jose Mercury News article here