Comments on: How Efficient is my Data Center? http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/ Fresh Thinking on IT Operations Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:12:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Graham Bailey http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-657 Graham Bailey Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:26:43 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-657 Our experience in providing design, build and support to computer rooms is that many organisations cannot yet measure power consumption either in the rack or in the room but either add up the labels on the back of their kit or look at bills.<br><br>Even worse, we have found that companies interested in doing this have had budget cuts (recession - what recession?) because these exercises 'can wait' Our experience in providing design, build and support to computer rooms is that many organisations cannot yet measure power consumption either in the rack or in the room but either add up the labels on the back of their kit or look at bills.

Even worse, we have found that companies interested in doing this have had budget cuts (recession – what recession?) because these exercises 'can wait'

]]> By: Graham Bailey http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-291 Graham Bailey Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:26:43 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-291 Our experience in providing design, build and support to computer rooms is that many organisations cannot yet measure power consumption either in the rack or in the room but either add up the labels on the back of their kit or look at bills.<br><br>Even worse, we have found that companies interested in doing this have had budget cuts (recession - what recession?) because these exercises 'can wait' Our experience in providing design, build and support to computer rooms is that many organisations cannot yet measure power consumption either in the rack or in the room but either add up the labels on the back of their kit or look at bills.

Even worse, we have found that companies interested in doing this have had budget cuts (recession – what recession?) because these exercises 'can wait'

]]> By: ARTHUR http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-288 ARTHUR Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:14:30 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-288 I HAVE A GREEN DATA CENTER COOLING SYSTEM THAT USES 50% LESS TONNAGE.YOU CAN VIEW DRAWINGS AND SPECD AT THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL BLOG FROM APRIL HAS LINK. I HAVE A GREEN DATA CENTER COOLING SYSTEM THAT USES 50% LESS TONNAGE.YOU CAN VIEW DRAWINGS AND SPECD AT THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL BLOG FROM APRIL HAS LINK.

]]> By: Steve O'Donnell http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-129 Steve O'Donnell Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:45:25 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-129 Hi Tim, Thanks for the comment. You are absolutely right that the measure we need is much more about measuring business value against electricity used. How many unnecessary or underused applications are deployed in our data centers and how mush do they cost the business to run for zero benefits? I started looking at the implications of this in Asset Management is a Green Issue - an earlier article. Methinks I need to develop this theme around how we measure value of IT from a business perspective. Steve Hi Tim,

Thanks for the comment. You are absolutely right that the measure we need is much more about measuring business value against electricity used. How many unnecessary or underused applications are deployed in our data centers and how mush do they cost the business to run for zero benefits?

I started looking at the implications of this in Asset Management is a Green Issue – an earlier article. Methinks I need to develop this theme around how we measure value of IT from a business perspective.

Steve

]]> By: Tim Coote http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-128 Tim Coote Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:33:24 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-128 I like the approach, but I'm worried about how it gets to be misused by the inexperienced as it still doesn't tie together the resource used (electricity) with the business' operations that drive revenues/cost (business applications/processes or transactions). I've had really naive questions from people in large businesses charged with 'improving utilisation' whose targets could be met by either swapping out new kit for old (sic), or running SETI@home on all of their servers. I think that there's often too large a gap between front and back ends of IT delvery (App Dev -> Operations), leading to local optimisation and global dysfunction. I like the approach, but I’m worried about how it gets to be misused by the inexperienced as it still doesn’t tie together the resource used (electricity) with the business’ operations that drive revenues/cost (business applications/processes or transactions).

I’ve had really naive questions from people in large businesses charged with ‘improving utilisation’ whose targets could be met by either swapping out new kit for old (sic), or running SETI@home on all of their servers.

I think that there’s often too large a gap between front and back ends of IT delvery (App Dev -> Operations), leading to local optimisation and global dysfunction.

]]> By: ONStor and NetApp are head on competitors in the Network Attached Storage business so I thought that I would find out why ONStor make their cooling and power efficiency claims | The Hot Aisle http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-123 ONStor and NetApp are head on competitors in the Network Attached Storage business so I thought that I would find out why ONStor make their cooling and power efficiency claims | The Hot Aisle Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:29:29 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-123 [...] a staggering 2.1 KW extra power load from a similar sized competitive product. Depending on the PUE of your Data Center (say an average modern one at 1.6) this is a total annual energy saving of nearly 30 MW hours. [...] [...] a staggering 2.1 KW extra power load from a similar sized competitive product. Depending on the PUE of your Data Center (say an average modern one at 1.6) this is a total annual energy saving of nearly 30 MW hours. [...]

]]> By: End of an Era at VMWare | The Hot Aisle http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-105 End of an Era at VMWare | The Hot Aisle Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:02:41 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-105 [...] a victim of heroism via unexpected consequences. Pretty much single handed VMWare has raised the CPE - Compute Power Efficiency of the average Intel based server out of all recognition. Whenever I have had the guys pull [...] [...] a victim of heroism via unexpected consequences. Pretty much single handed VMWare has raised the CPE – Compute Power Efficiency of the average Intel based server out of all recognition. Whenever I have had the guys pull [...]

]]> By: When was the last time you saw a Data Center press release that didn't make some green or energy efficiency claim? | The Hot Aisle http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-95 When was the last time you saw a Data Center press release that didn't make some green or energy efficiency claim? | The Hot Aisle Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:27:02 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-95 [...] data center. If I was you I would not be publicizing it in a press release. (My earlier article How Efficient is my Data Center? explains the math behind calculating data center efficiency). Now if you get down to a PUE of 1.3 [...] [...] data center. If I was you I would not be publicizing it in a press release. (My earlier article How Efficient is my Data Center? explains the math behind calculating data center efficiency). Now if you get down to a PUE of 1.3 [...]

]]> By: Why engineer around the problem when you can engineer the problem out? | The Hot Aisle http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-91 Why engineer around the problem when you can engineer the problem out? | The Hot Aisle Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:58:19 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-91 [...] like BT’s 21st Century Data Center use 100% Fresh Air cooling and have a significantly better PUE. Switch has spent years banging away on a data center design that runs contrary to conventional [...] [...] like BT’s 21st Century Data Center use 100% Fresh Air cooling and have a significantly better PUE. Switch has spent years banging away on a data center design that runs contrary to conventional [...]

]]> By: Steve O'Donnell http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-28 Steve O'Donnell Tue, 20 May 2008 22:03:37 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-28 Bill A good place to start is with The Green Grid (see Industry Bodies on this Blog for URL). They are pretty theoretical and spend a lot of time looking at and developing standards such as PUE etc.. Then you need a decent Electrical Engineer to follow the basic instructions in this post. You might consider getting in touch with Martin Williams at Glasshouse to see if using their Reflector product might get you closer to real time measurement of your KPIs. Anyway very good luck and let me know how you get on. Steve Bill

A good place to start is with The Green Grid (see Industry Bodies on this Blog for URL). They are pretty theoretical and spend a lot of time looking at and developing standards such as PUE etc.. Then you need a decent Electrical Engineer to follow the basic instructions in this post. You might consider getting in touch with Martin Williams at Glasshouse to see if using their Reflector product might get you closer to real time measurement of your KPIs.

Anyway very good luck and let me know how you get on.

Steve

]]> By: Bill Torrance http://www.thehotaisle.com/2008/05/15/how-efficient-is-my-data-center/comment-page-1/#comment-17 Bill Torrance Thu, 15 May 2008 22:32:31 +0000 http://www.thehotaisle.com/?p=40#comment-17 Steve This is a really thought provoking article and one that I intend to use to start baselining my data centers. Have you any advice about where I might get help in pulling these numbers together? It seems evident to me that taking this measure, manage, measure approach will lead to us getting a much better understanding of how our behavior impacts energy efficiency. Anyone out there got any comparative values? Bill Steve

This is a really thought provoking article and one that I intend to use to start baselining my data centers. Have you any advice about where I might get help in pulling these numbers together?

It seems evident to me that taking this measure, manage, measure approach will lead to us getting a much better understanding of how our behavior impacts energy efficiency.

Anyone out there got any comparative values?

Bill

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