Data Center Handbook, 2nd Edition

32DATA CENTER BENCHMARK METRICS

Bill Kosik

DNV Energy Services USA Inc., Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

32.1 INTRODUCTION

In addition to Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), there are currently several energy and performance metrics designed specifically for data centers. Many of these metrics are used to evaluate systems beyond the facility power and cooling systems. An example of this is to judge the efficacy of the IT systems. The maturity and usefulness of these metrics ranges from fully established to ones that are still under development. The information presented here focuses on metrics and evaluation programs, such as PUE, that are currently used by data center owners to benchmark data centers and look for ways to reduce energy use.

32.2 THE GREEN GRID'S PUE: A USEFUL METRIC

In order to develop some historical perspective on the development of meaningful data center energy efficiency metrics, we need to go back to 2007, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produced a report at the request of the U.S. Congress on server and data center energy efficiency. One of the more prescient statements from the report stated: “The federal government and industry should work together to develop an objective, credible energy performance rating system for data centers, initially addressing the infrastructure portion but extending, when possible, to include a companion metric for the productivity and work output of IT equipment (ITE).” This was a clear directive ...