Emerson Network Power (NYSE: EMR) has introduced its Energy Logic 2.0, an e-book in PDF format billed as "a vendor-neutral roadmap of 10 strategies that can reduce a data center’s energy use by up to 74 percent."
Emerson says the approach detailed in the new e-book updates its original Energy Logic tool, introduced in 2007, to incorporate the advances in technology and best practices that have emerged in the past five years. With the inclusion of new technologies and best practices, the company says that the updated Energy Logic 2.0 illustrates how the energy consumption of a 5,000 square-foot data center could be cut by up to 74 percent using available technologies.
According to Emerson, the analysis accomplishes this by leveraging "the cascade effect, the cornerstone of the Energy Logic approach."
As explained by the company, "The cascade effect quantifies how savings at the IT component level are magnified in the supporting systems, recommending an overall approach that focuses on optimizing the efficiency of core IT systems to drive the greatest savings. In a data center with a PUE of 1.9, a 1 W savings at the server processor creates a 2.84 W savings at the facility level as a result of the cascade effect. At higher PUEs, the savings is even greater."
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The original Energy Logic approach in 2007 was designed and tested on a 5,000-square-foot model data center. This year, Emerson used a model data center of the same size to build the Energy Logic 2.0 roadmap. This time, however, the company notes that recent technological advancements have enabled even greater energy savings. For instance:
-- Energy Logic 2.0 shows how the energy consumption of the base data center can be reduced from 1,543 kW to 408 kW.
-- Key strategies, such as high-efficiency server components, power architecture improvements, and temperature and airflow management have been updated to reflect recent technological advances.
-- The base data center takes into account the rapid adoption of server virtualization. The optimized Energy Logic data center in 2007 assumed 20 percent virtualization, whereas the un-optimized data center in 2012 assumes 30 percent virtualization. In addition, server consolidation and virtualization are now treated as one strategy because they typically happen in concert.
-- Information and Communications Technology (ICT) architecture is highlighted as an emerging best practice that delivers energy savings by optimizing IT and networking architecture.
-- The emergence of data center infrastructure management (DCIM) is incorporated throughout the Energy Logic strategy, because DCIM provides the visibility and control required to fully leverage multiple Energy Logic strategies, including server power management, virtualization, power architecture, and temperature and airflow management.
In addition to the cascade effect, Emerson Network Power has quantified the “reverse” cascade effect: the total energy wasted by stranded capacity. Just as 1 W of savings at the server component level can save 2.84 W at the facility level, 1 W of energy wasted on an unproductive server creates an additional 1.95 W of waste at the facility level.
“Energy Logic 2.0 clearly shows there still are great opportunities to optimize the data center,” comments Jack Pouchet, vice president of business development and director of energy initiatives for Emerson Network Power. “Energy efficiency remains a priority, and a new generation of management technologies that provide greater visibility and control of data center systems has arrived. The data center industry is better positioned than ever to make a serious impact in reducing overall data center energy consumption.”
Concurrent with the new e-book, the company has also launched its Energy Logic 2.0 Cascading Savings Calculator, an online tool that allows data center managers to calculate the approximate energy savings they would capture by employing strategies in the updated approach. Data center managers can use the Cascading Savings Calculator to explore the impact Energy Logic 2.0 strategies might have on their facility. Users enter their compute load and facility PUE, then adjust sliding scales for nine strategies to show percent utilization. Based on this information, the calculator will approximate a strategy’s impact on compute load, PUE, and total energy and cost savings.
Strategies data center managers can explore via the calculator include: low-power components; high-efficiency power supplies; server power management; ICT architecture; virtualization and consolidation; power architecture; temperature and airflow management; variable-capacity cooling; and high-density cooling. According to Emerson, by trying out the Cascading Savings Calculator, data center managers can see how implementing each strategy -- or varying degrees of each strategy -- might impact their savings.
Download Emerson's e-book, Energy Logic 2.0
Access Emerson's Energy Logic 2.0 Cascading Savings Calculator