Like any other successful business during a recession, data center operations must be run efficiently to minimize cost and maximize profit. This is where the solutions offered by Server Technology (News - Alert) come into play.
“Server Technology is the leading innovator in power distribution units, distributing, monitoring and controlling power within the data center cabinet,” explained Calvin Nicholson, Senior Director of Software and Strategic Alliances, during a recent video interview with TMCnet’s Rich Tehrani at the Interop (News - Alert) show in New York.
During the video interview, Nicholson and Tehrani discussed the impact cloud computing is having on the data center industry, the especially strong need for monitoring solutions in markets where power availability is down, and other trends.
Nicholson noted that data center densities are continuing to rise, but so is the cost of power. This puts an increased focus not just on monitoring and management, but also on finding way to conserve power.
“Power management is something people were just talking about before; now they’re trying to do something about it,” he said.
Data centers user Server Technology’s solutions, including Sentry Power Manager, to understand power usage down to the individual device level. Some companies are putting this technology to use not just as a way to increase external profit margins, but also to enable power bill back within their own facilities. This adds a new level of accountability within data centers around power usage.
Data centers are no longer merely concerned with monitoring power, Nicholson said; they understand it’s necessary to do something with the usage information available. Especially since power prices can fluctuate significantly.
“Many facilities now are being billed different rates of power based on the time of day,” he told Tehrani.
One key opportunity for reducing unnecessary power usage: accurate monitoring of comatose or ‘zombie’ servers. Nicholson estimated that in a given 18-month timespan, roughly 10 percent of data center devices are running but not doing any useful work.
Rather than unplugging the network cable from devices that seem like they might be dormant, and waiting for the phone to ring with complaints, data center managers can use Sentry Power Manager to pinpoint exactly which computers are sitting idle and make intelligent decisions about powering them down or putting them back in service.
To learn more about intelligent data center power management, visit the Data Center Power channel on TMCnet’s Information Technology portal.