By. Emerson Network Power
ENERGY EFFICIENCY – It’s a Given
Nobody needs to tell you that energy efficiency is at the top of the data center’s to-do list. Every data center is looking to cut power consumption while maintaining the highest level of service.
But achieving real energy efficiency is easier said than done. Sprawling and convoluted infrastructures make it hard to discern power usage effectiveness (PUE) and data center infrastructure efficiency (DCIE). Data centers end up “flying blind” when it comes to really understanding and optimizing power consumption.
The following guidelines can help you better understand and manage your power consumption.
1. CREATE A COMPREHENSIVE INVENTORY MODELOF THE DATA CENTER
The first step is to develop a single, comprehensive model of all the deployed assets, interdependencies, capacity and resources in your data center. This model is vital for increasing energy efficiency because it shows you the existing capacity of your power and cooling systems as well as the connections and dependencies between data and power devices. It lets you match available resources to device requirements and calculate the impact of placement on underlying resources to ensure that capacity thresholds are not exceeded while not overpowering equipment. In addition, an inventory model helps you integrate IT and facilities system management to quickly identify the optimal location for devices and simplify change management, for example.
WHAT YOU NEED: Developing a complete model can be time-consuming and costly without the right tools. Start with a detailed catalog and use graphical visualization to create a map of the floor space. A visual map provides a realistic view that makes it easier to locate assets and understand the relationships between them. It is also important that the modeling tool provides sophisticated search capabilities. Those that use a symbolic library to represent assets let you quickly locate a specific asset without having to physically look for it.
2. MAKE THE POWER CHAIN VISIBLE
Complement the inventory model with an equally comprehensive view of total resource consumption along the power chain as well as actual energy consumption and availability.
With visibility into aggregated resource consumption, you can better understand dependencies to accurately assess the health of the data center and identify opportunities for improvement. For example, when planning to add consumption, you can see the impact on predecessor elements in the power chain to identify potential capacity bottlenecks or penetration into safety margins.
Insight into actual consumption and operating efficiency makes it far easier to track energy costs and see where improvements can be made. You can know exactly where inefficiencies are occurring within devices and subsystems, calculate utility costs at the system and unit levels and comply with industry-approved efficiency metrics.
WHAT YOU NEED: Gaining insight into the power chain requires:
- A visual “big picture” of the power system, including dependencies, active power path and current status of each device from utility entrance down to rack power distribution.
- A unified view of real-time energy consumption as well as current and historical efficiency metrics for PUE and DCIE. These capabilities let you track and manage actual energy costs to reduce the risk of unforeseen overages and understand the impact of cost-control decisions.
3. CONTINUOUSLY MONITOR THE DATA CENTER
Finally, continuously monitor information about operating status and resource consumption to better manage energy usage. Using the data captured for historical trend analysis, you can better determine where to place assets in relation to available capacity.
You can combine monitoring and analysis with alarm management to set energy limits by zone or rack that will trigger alarms for the most critical issues. This reduces the amount of time spent responding to non-critical alarms, tracing their origin and fixing problems.
WHAT YOU NEED: A solution must provide real-time device operating status and data trending for all facility-critical devices, including reporting on power, cooling and environmental conditions down to such details as temperature, humidity, airflow and leak detection. When this data is presented in a graphical floor plan, you can quickly see the actual health of any device and proactively address potential capacity problems. Easily customized alarm and event management will make the best use of your IT resources, allowing them to set thresholds and notifications so that they focus only on the most important issues.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY CHECKLIST
Achieving optimal energy efficiency requires detailed understanding about the data center’s power chain. How many of these functions related to energy management can you currently perform
- Align power delivered to SLA performance.
- Know which rack has the required amount of power to handle new equipment.
- Identify trapped capacity along the power chain.
- Identify unnecessarily powered idle equipment.
- Have nameplate, derated and actual power consumption documented.
- Receive real-time alerts when capacity thresholds are exceeded.
- Recognize consumption at each point in the power chain.
- Manage power based on current capacity model, actual consumption and projected growth/need.
BENEFITS
With the right tools delivering comprehensive, real-time data about resources, their relationships and dependencies, you can better calculate power consumption to ensure the lowest PUE at optimal availability; understand true capacity to improve planning and resource allocation; and optimize the use of existing assets to reduce energy costs and comply with green initiatives while delivering the highest level of service.
Emerson Network Power works closely with its customers and partners to deliver revolutionary solutions for increasing energy efficiency, improving operations and achieving new levels of agility that support business growth and transformation. Find the solutions that best fit your energy efficiency initiatives at EmersonNetworkPower.com.
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Source: http://www.emersonnetworkpower.com/en-US/sites/DCIM/Documents/0114-EE-OP-EN.pdf
