Power Assure, Inc. has released a research report titled, "Benefits and Challenges of Software Defined Power," which identifies Software Defined Power (SDP) as an evolving technology that will become commonplace in just a few years and also noted that Software Defined Power, because of its ROI and reliability benefits, can pay for itself in a short amount of time. Software Defined Power is an emerging technology that helps manage and move IT loads between datacenters to where power reliability, availability or cost is optimal, including for datacenters that are part of a public cloud service. Software Defined Power continuously tests disaster recovery procedures, making them substantially more reliable, at the same time matching on-line resources to application demand both within and across multiple sites with fail-safe verification.
"As this technology emerges, chances are high that it will find its way into most data centers, becoming table stakes for running an effective and efficient data center operation. Consider the value of avoiding service outages as well as the ability to move to a lower cost of operations," said David S. Linthicum author of the report, adding "The use of this technology is destined to change the way we consider power management. We can finally couple power systems and the applications they power to better drive efficiency. While this will be an evolving science, even the initial value this technology brings to the industry is substantial."
The report further explores the fundamentals of Software Defined Power and reviews how IT organizations can apply SDP in their data centers to increase the availability of applications and data. The report cites that innovative companies are already leveraging Software Defined Power to increase reliability and reduce costs and to that end, it proposes that enterprises should approach this technology with a certain amount of planning to optimize success. Analyst David Linthicum also points out that as part of his research for this paper, Power Assure demonstrated Software Defined Power using its Software Defined Power technology.
As detailed in the report, the following was noted in the demonstration: A transactional web application operating across four geographically dispersed data centers was demonstrated. This depicted four separate data centers with separate power systems to support each data center. During the demonstration, the Power Assure Software Defined Power system responded automatically to changes in application demand. It did so without any impact on users, even when the rate of change was pronounced during the demonstration. It was noted that the operation was fail-safe, with application resources being thoroughly tested before they had load placed on them.
Also during the demonstration it was observed that the Power Assure software defined power system was able to proactively move substantial live loads between data centers 2,500 miles apart with no impact on connected users or service levels. The purpose of relocating loads dynamically was to take advantage of the lowest-cost pricing for each data center. The load is redirected dynamically, based on the power requirements as well as the changing cost of power. All of this was done without disrupting the application services. This same approach may also be leveraged for dynamic failover scenarios in support of disaster recovery operations.
The report concluded by highlighting the increasing importance of managing power based on application workload and the clear advantage of Software Defined Power with its ability to deliver a quick ROI.
