White Papers: energy efficiency

The benefits of determining data center infrastructure efficiency as part of an effective energy management plan are widely recognised. The standard metrics of Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and its reciprocal Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency1 (DCIE) have emerged as recognised standards. This paper defines a standard approach to collecting data from data centers and showing how to use it to calculate PUE, with a focus on what to do with data that is confusing or incomplete.

Electrical power usage is not a typical design criterion for data centers, nor is it effectively managed as an expense. This is true despite the fact that the electrical power costs over the life of a data center may exceed the costs of the electrical power system including the UPS, and also may exceed the cost of the IT equipment. Read on.