Take the Guess Work out of Data Center Energy Management
Posted on Mon, Mar 22, 2010 @ 08:20 AM
At Viridity, one of the things we frequently tell data center managers interested in a more efficienct data center is to start gathering information that can help them make informed decisions. Gathering the facts can be a time consuming task, but doing so means you can reap huge rewards when it comes time to take on the next big consolidation, tech refresh, or asset growth project. Taking the guess work out of this process can make or break your time and expense budgets.
Before Viridity EnergyCenter software, there were a number of disparate tools at your disposal for aggregating this information: spreadsheets, layout tools, and protocol monitoring. If you're using these today, the good news is you’re ahead of the curve. What you've probably realized though is that over time keeping these tools up to date when you’re planning the next big project, is a huge task. If that’s not enough, we frequently hear from administrators who've invested the time to get the raw data because they are overwhelmed with the amount of information and don’t know how to pull from their efforts.
One of the great things about working at Viridity is I work on a solution that solves all of these issues that we are all too familiar with. I started my career working in the data center and I experienced first hand both the uncertainty of not having the information to make informed decisions and the paralysis that can occur with too much information in vast and in varied formats. I can still remember hearing the Viridity pitch for the first time and thinking "Why is nobody else doing this?"
Viridity EnergyCenter goes beyond automating the process of keeping your data center information up to date. In about 15 minutes, you can discover your networked equipment and can start polling for power consumption and utilization information. This feature alone usually gets people interested, but it's really not about the information, it's about making it actionable. The information gained helps make the energy efficiency case, but it's getting the answers to your questions that makes your data center energy efficient.
• Is there enough power provisioned to add new equipment?
• Would the cost of a tech refresh be offset by operation cost?
• What equipment is doing useful work and which are candidates to be consolidated or removed?
EnergyCenter uses the information gained from looking at the power consumption and utilization of your equipment and augments it with information we've gathered over time to give you the answers to these questions.
The first step will always be getting as much useful information as possible. Whether you're ready to invest in data management software or not it's what is going to drive your future projects and maintenance. Our mission is to let customers focus on execution by providing proven answers to previously difficult problems. Be sure to check out the products page to see how we can help you. We're always focused on providing the features important to our customers, if you have a suggestion, we'd love to hear.
Matt Bailey, Software Engineer