Measuring Impact of Virtualization on Data Center Energy Efficiency

In several recently published articles a recent Forrester Green IT study has been referenced suggesting that the biggest opportunities to bring green IT into the conversation surround server virtualization in the data center. At Viridity Software, we are closely aligned with server virtualization.

Server virtualization technology has been in commercial production environments since the mainframe days. Contemporary server virtualization (over the past five years) has been driven by the explosive deployment of “industry standard” or x86 servers resulting in server sprawl. This coupled with VMware entering the market with technology that allows for multiple “virtual servers” to be configured on a single physical server has led to a major transformation in how IT equipment, x86 servers in particular, are deployed, configured and maintained in the data center.

Viridity EnergyCenter plays a key role in the x86 server virtualization ecosystem which include:

• Planning for Virtualization – Viridity EnergyCenter helps you identify consolidation candidates based on utilization & power consumption
• Designing for Virtualization – Viridity EnergyCenter helps you understand how “motion” (moving workloads from one server cluster to another) will impact utilization and consumption to avoid outages or wasted capacity. This allows you to increase density without creating power and cooling issues (referered to as “hot spots”.)
• Optimizing for Virtual Environments – Viridity EnergyCenter monitors utilization and power consumption at the virtual machine or “guest” level which helps you to understand the power implications of virtual machine sprawl.
• Measuring Virtualization Results – Viridity EnergyCenter will benchmark your data center utilization and power consumption performance before and after virtualization deployments at the device, rack, row or data center level.

As with all disruptive technologies, server virtualization offers tons of benefits. When it comes time to improve energy efficiency in the data center, server virtualization definitely plays a key role. But at the end of the day, the old cliché “You cannot improve what you cannot measure” requires an application to measure the before and after to truly quantify the reduction in consumption and realize the benefits.

Marty Stephens of LexisNexis on Managing Data Center Energy with Viridity Software

Today, Michael Rowan, CTO & Co-Founder of Viridity Software, and Marty Stephens, Director of Information Technology of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, discussed how Viridity EnergyCenter software helped LexisNexis Risk Solutions improve energy efficiency and lowered their power bill.

Marty, who manages Critical Infrastructure for the LexisNexis RAIG Alpharetta Data Center, currently has a Tier III+ data center with plans to become a Tier IV data center by the end of 2010. His data center supports an annual revenue stream of over a billion dollars. Prior to using Viridity EnergyCenter software, LexisNexis Risk Solutions was able to cut $1 million by getting rid of useless servers in their data center – but that was by putting a team on project managers working extra hours on the project. “We could have done the whole project with the push of a button if we had started with Viridity EnergyCenter.” Marty went on to say that he can take the information he gets from using Viridity EnergyCenter in his data center, directly to other IT managers, Facility managers, and C-level executives to justify the immediate ROI of the software when he shows the power savings gained with a more efficiently run data center. “Every dollar saved in the data center is a dollar in the bank for my company,” he says.

PUE Category 3 is Within Reach for all Data Centers

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), a metric for measuring efficiency in the data center, has become the “hot” data center topic of 2010. Not all of the attention has been positive. At its core, calculating PUE is dead simple. You divide the amount of power entering a data center by the amount of power used to run the computer infrastructure within it. However, the details on how to accurately calculate PUE were vague – until now. This resulted in a wide variety of techniques and results that made it difficult to compare separate data centers based on the metric.

On June 15, a task force comprised of “who’s who in data center efficiency,” a list that includes ASHRAE, The Uptime Institute, and others released the new “Recommendations for Measuring and Reporting Overall Data Center Efficiency”. The authors acknowledge that data centers have varying degrees of sophistication when it comes to ability to measure PUE. In the core three tenants listed at the beginning of the document, they state:

“When calculating PUE, IT energy consumption should, at a minimum, be measured at the output of the uninterruptible power supply (UPS). However, the industry should progressively improve measurement capabilities over time so that measurement of IT energy consumption directly at the IT load (i.e., servers) becomes the common practice.”

The report goes on to establish four levels of PUE with “the intent to encourage operators with limited measurement equipment to participate” with PUE Category 0 being the least accurate and PUE Category 3 having the highest degree of granularity and accuracy. The requirements for PUE Category 3 according to the report are listed below.

PUE Category 3

This is a consumption-based calculation. The IT load is represented by a 12-month total kWh reading taken at the point of connection of the IT devices to the electrical system. This is a cumulative measurement and requires the use of kWh consumption meters at all measurement points. Total energy is determined in the same way as Category 1. This measurement method provides the highest level of accuracy for measurement of the IT load reading by removing all impact of losses associated with electrical distribution components and non-IT related devices, e.g., rack mounted fans, etc.

At Viridity Software, we believe the cost and effort involved in “measurement equipment” should not be a barrier to data centers seeking to achieve PUE Category 3 level of measurement. We believe that all data centers should be able to measure energy consumption at the server level without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on hardware, and months of man hours on training and deployment. Viridity EnergyCenter software is up and running in minutes, and starts returning actionable data about power consumption at the server level within hours. Learn more about Viridity’s EnergyCenter.

Michael Tresh
Director of Product Management
Viridity Software

Greg Schulz and Mike Rowan Chat on Data Center Energy Efficiency

Today, the author of “The Green and Virtual Data Center” and Founder of Storage IO, Greg Schulz, joined Viridity’s Co-founder and CTO, Mike Rowan to provide real world insight into best practices, as well as server, storage, networking, and facilities issues concerning any current or next-generation virtualized data center.  It was a great discussion that covered:

• How to close the green gap with solutions that address IT issues
• IT data centers dependencies on electrical power
• Differences between avoiding energy use and being energy efficient
• Why achieving energy efficiency is important to sustain growth and business productivity           

A lucky winner from St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and Lexus Nexus won a signed copy of Greg’s book.  A recorded version of the webinar will be posted shortly.  In the meantime, please take a look at the slides from today’s presentation.

 

Protecting Your Data Center from Brownouts with Viridity EnergyCenter

A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather that often comes with high humidity.  A very persistent heat wave, like the one we're having in the Northeast this week, can cause widespread power outages due to electricity spikes due to increased air conditioning use, which can lead to power outages.

If you're managing a data center, then you know that computer systems and other electronic storage devices are susceptible to data loss or hardware damage that can be caused by the sudden loss of power.

Protection from Brownouts 

Running Viridity EnergyCenter in preparation a brownout will help you know how much power the equipment in your data center is actually consuming. With this information, you can determine the actual power requirements that need be protected by the uninterruptible power system (UPS).  You can use this information to:

• Inventory data center assets including servers, power distribution units (PDUs), branch circuit monitors (BCMs) so that you know what you need to protect.
• Identify best placement for equipment. Efficiently place hardware based on rack space, rack power capacity, and server dimensions so that nothing overheats.
• Track top power consumers.  Know which equipment is consuming the most power so that you ensure that there is enough power to run them. 
• Determine how much battery runtime you need. During an outage, you'll need enough battery runtime to shut down systems or switch to backup generators.

With advanced planning and energy resource management software, you can reduce costs and downtime while resolving the most common threats to IT systems due to brownouts.

Viridity Software Presents Data Center Energy Resource Management Best Practices

In a recent survey of data center managers, Viridity Software learned that 48% of data center managers don’t know how they are measuring the power used within their data center. At the same time, 16% of data center managers are concerned with the increasing cost of power while another 10% are concerned with running out of power all together.

 

We reviewed the survey results and discussed data center energy resource management best practices with IT managers in a recent webinar. If you'f interested in learning what we presented, take a look at the slides below.

Viridity Software Selected as a Red Herring Top 100 North America Tech Startup

Red Herring announced its Top 100 award in recognition of the leading private companies from North America, celebrating these startups’ innovations and technologies across their respective industries and Viridity Software, the leader in energy resource management solutions, is one of the award winners.

Red Herring’s Top 100 North America list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Red Herring editors were among the first to recognize that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube, and eBay would change the way we live and work. 

“Choosing the companies with the strongest potential was by no means a small feat,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “After rigorous contemplation and discussion, we narrowed our list down from hundreds of candidates from across North America to the Top 100 Winners. We believe Viridity Software embodies the vision, drive and innovation that define a successful entrepreneurial venture. Viridity Software should be proud of its accomplishment, as the competition was very strong.”

Red Herring’s editorial staff evaluated the companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. This assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track record and standing of startups relative to their sector peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list a valuable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the most promising new business models in North America.

It Was a Big Week for Data Center Energy News

There was a lot of interesting news on data center energy this week.  Here's a look at some of the articles that caught our attention.

DatacenterDynamics ran a nice piece on how the rising cost and demand for energy in the data center combined with impending government legislation means energy efficiency metrics are taking hold and evolving at a rapid pace.

SearchDataCenter News ran an article by Robert McFarlane on the new EnergyStar ratings for data centers.  In the article, he points out that the new Energy Star rating will have its detractors because it is based on the already controversial PUE (power usage efficiency) which is becoming the global standard for measuring data center efficiency.  He points out, the metric is "not valid as a comparison among different data centers" and that the problem with PUE is that it looks only at how much energy is used and not how that energy usage is contributing the business. 

Melissa Alvarez blogged about The Three Biggest Myths About Green IT. The first myth is that the case for Green IT is a clear one.  She writes that "the biggest problem in making the case for energy efficiency has nothing to do with the technology. The issue is who realizes the benefits."  The second myth is that Green IT is achievable.  Her thinking here is that Green IT isn't so much a destination as a journey that involves creating processes and policies that define a way of operating over the long-term.  And the third myth is that everybody cares about Green IT.  She quotes the results of a recent survey from CIO magazine that asked IT management their top priorities where Green IT didn't make the list.  Her thinking is that "Green IT is really about doing away with waste and inefficiency -- and inefficiency costs money."

At Viridity Software, we believe that you can't manage what you can't measure.  It's great to read that energy efficiency metrics are taking hold across the industry and that people recognize that reducing data center energy usage benefits the whole organization.

What If IT Had To Pay The Power Bill?

Recently, BAO conducted their quarterly survey of one hundred IT professionals for us.

When they asked who has responsibility for power management in the data center they learned that it was a mix of IT, Facilities, IT & Facilities, and third party or co-location hosted facilities. This is because for most organizations the responsibility for the power bill usually sits with the Facilities department.

When asked "How are you measuring your power consumption?" about half of the IT managers asked just didn't know. 

 

 

These results are in line with information BAO has gathered from past surveys for Viridity Software. It's not unusual to learn that data centers are spending more on their energy bill than they are on capital equipment.  One reason for this is that the department ordering equipment for the data center is not the same group that pays the power bill.

What if IT paid the power bill?

If the IT department received the power bill instead of the Facilities department, they would understand the total impact of adding new equipment to the data center.  Technology investment decisions might be made based on being more energy efficient as it would impact data center ROI along with meeting business objectives.

Viridity EnergyCenter software helps both IT and Facilities managers get the information they need to monitor the power consumption and utilization of all of the networked equipment in the data center.  With this insight and actionable information, they can drive down costs and extend the life of their existing data centers. Our customers often discover 20% to 40% improvements in data center energy efficiency right away.  

So, which ever department ends up with the power bill, using Viridity EnergyCenter and putting best practices into place, they'll see their power bill get smaller instead of larger. And, that's good for the whole organization.

Discover What's In Your Data Center In < 2 Minutes

The first step towards optimizing your data center to be more energy efficient is to discover what is actually in it.  With Viridity EnergyCenter, you can view a data center inventory of assets including servers, power distribution units (PDUs), branch circuit monitors (BCMs), and more. Then, filter system types by data center, rack row, or IP address range. This video demonstrates how you can begin data center management in less than two minutes.

Once you've discovered all of the assets in this data center, you can then discover the data center power draw, events triggering jobs, the average server utilization, and the number of underutilized servers within hours.  Viridity Energy Center provides you with actionable information that results in major cost reductions while increasing your overall data center energy efficiency.

To learn more, join us on one of our upcoming live webinars where Viridity co-founder and CTO, Michael Rowan, will drill down on data center energy optimization issues, demo Viridity EnergyCenter, and answer any questions you have.