The Green Grid Launches New Data Center Energy Efficiency Reporting Guidelines & Data Center 2.0 Program
The Green Grid announced the launch of new programs, tools and metrics and reporting guidelines designed to help data center managers worldwide improve the efficiency of their facilities and operations.
"As IT and Facilities budgets receive increased scrutiny, efficiency becomes a more business critical issue for data center managers globally," said Tom Brey, a Director of The Green Grid and Senior Technical Staff member in IBM’s Systems and Technology Group. "Members of The Green Grid have been working hard to develop new tools, metrics and guidelines for measuring efficiency, and we’re looking forward to receiving industry feedback at this year’s Technical Forum."
Following on the introduction last year of PUE and DCiE metrics which help end-users separate and measure their facility power consumption from their IT power consumption, The Green Grid is exploring different methods for measuring and reporting energy efficiency and data center productivity (DCP). Potential measurements of useful work in data centers, the "Proxies for Estimating Data Center Productivity," is open for public comment.
The Green Grid announcd plans for the new Data Center 2.0 program. This initiative will provide the industry with a multi-year set of design guides proposed for use by data center operators and designers to build and operate energy efficient data centers. The design guides will provide principles and guidelines for use in both new data center designs and/or retrofits. In addition to the design guide, The Data Center 2.0 program will also include a recognition program for end-users reporting their PUE or DCiE measurements within the stated guidelines.
"The data center is comprised of highly complex systems, and while multiple technical designs and best practice documents exist within the industry, there is not a single authoritative source taking a holistic approach to data center designs and moving the data center as a whole forward," said Jim Pappas, a Director of The Green Grid and Director of Initiative Marketing in Intel’s Server Platforms Group. "With the Data Center 2.0 initiative, The Green Grid will spearhead the effort to create an industry accepted design guide to optimize data center efficiency."
The Green Grid will also launch to its members "The Green Grid Academy," a set of readily-available training materials that can help end-users better understand how to deploy industry-standard metrics and measurements into their specific facilities. This content is expected to be released publicly during the first half of 2009.
The Green Grid also announced the release of several new white papers for public consumption:
PUE Scalability – This white paper explains how to use data collected from energy consumption to produce both statistical analyses, and introduces a new metric called PUE Scalability to better assess how well a facility’s total power consumption scales with changes in IT power consumption.
Proxies for Estimating Data Center Productivity – This paper outlines eight possible methods for measurement of useful work in the data center, and the public will have the opportunity to offer feedback on which specific method they prefer.
Using Virtualization To Improve Data Center Efficiency – This paper outlines some of the advantages, considerations, processes, and implementation strategies needed to reduce server power consumption in a data center using virtualization techniques.
