News

EDSA Introduces PUE-DCiE Advisor For Increasing Data Center Energy Efficiency

August 24, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

EDSA Micro Corp., developers of the Paladin® platform of power analytics™ software, announced the release of its Paladin Live PUE-DCiE Advisor™ in support of the new electrical power efficiency standards developed by the global IT association, The Green Grid.

To embrace the organization’s standards, EDSA’s Paladin Live power systems diagnostics platform has been enhanced to automatically present users with The Green Grid’s Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and data center infrastructure efficiency (DCiE) ratings in real-time. Used in conjunction with Paladin Live’s new Paladin(R) BlackBoard™ option, users gain the valuable ability to take a baseline model of their operations, and – in real time – allow them to make changes or propose "what if" scenarios, allowing them to project the future impact of those changes on the calculation of PUE or DCiE.

"Because Paladin Live analyzes and diagnoses data center power infrastructure in real time every second – and down to the smallest detail – it presents facility operators with a wealth of vital information about system health, reliability, capacity, and energy efficiency to guide facility planning," said Kevin Meagher, Chief Technology Officer for EDSA. "By pulling the data values needed to calculate energy utilization, and presenting that data in the manner specified by The Green Grid’s PUE and DCiE requirements, Paladin Live is the first commercial software product to present this crucial operating information automatically and provides the ability to project or see how changes will effect these critical metrics."

One of the goals of The Green Grid’s PUE and DCiE standards is to devise a commonly-applicable formula for data centers that is easy to understand – like MPG is for cars – to enable operators to quickly estimate the energy efficiency of their data centers, compare the results against other data centers, and determine if any energy efficiency improvements can be made.

PUE is the ratio of a facility’s total power to the power being drawn by IT equipment. The ratio is on an effective scale of 1.0 to 4.0 with a low score being most desirable; ideally, a facility’s score should be lower than 2.0. DCiE is the percentage of IT equipment power to total facility power (e.g. a DCiE of 33% means the IT equipment consumes one-third of the power in the facility.) The bigger the percentage, the better, e.g. DCiE of 33% is better than 25%.

"PUE and DCiE create a common reference point that make it possible for data center operators to start making important assessments of their facilities, as well as their going-forward strategies for reducing energy usage," Meagher added. "Imagine trying to calculate the MPG for your car – or just knowing how many miles you have left before you run out of gas – without gauges to tell you how much gas you started with, how big your gas tank is, your speed, or how far you’ve driven. PUE and DCiE provide values for the variables that, until now, kept data center operators largely in the dark about their energy efficiency."