Green Grid Proposes a 'Miles-per-Gallon' Metric for Data Centers

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BEAVERTON, Ore. -- The Green Grid, a global consortium of IT firms committed to enhancing the energy efficency of data centers, is hoping to have a new package of standardized metrics in place from next year that will allow firms to compare the energy efficiency of different servers, storage systems and networking equipment, in much the same way motorists compare the fuel efficiency of different cars.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Green Grid director Jim Pappas said that having successfully launched a measure for assessing the efficiency of data center cooling and power supply units in the form of its Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric the consortium is now working on standards for measuring the efficiency of the IT equipment itself.

"The PUE tells how much of the energy going into the facility is used by the IT equipment, but the next step is to try to understand how efficient the IT equipment is itself," he explained, adding that standards for assessing the utilisation of different systems had already been drafted and that the consortium was aiming to deliver draft versions of the completed efficiency metrics some point next year.

Previous attempts to develop standards for measuring the energy efficiency of servers, storage systems and networking equipment have previously faltered with rival IT manufacturers arguing over how to compare products' energy use when handling differing workloads.

However, Pappas expressed confidence that the scale of the Green Grid -- it recently signed up its 200th member and counts several of the world's largest IT companies among its ranks -- means that it will be able to deliver a metric the industry supports.

"If you take the analogy of the car industry fuel efficiency figures for new cars are published and that helps drive progress and innovation," he said. " Having these new metrics will ensure that the companies that do innovate on energy efficiency are rewarded. We really do have a who's who of IT vendors signed up and they are behind this initiative."

He added that once the metrics are established it will be possible for IT companies to develop solutions that monitor the energy use of the different software applications being run within the data center and automatically optimise the facility to ensure it is always running at peak energy efficiency.

The news comes as the Green Grid yesterday announced the formation of an end user Advisory Council, designed to provide the consortium with guidance on how its work is being received by the businesses that have to operate data centers.

"The Green Grid has great representation from IT manufacturers, but we do not want to be vendor dominated. We want end users to help us make sure the energy efficiency metrics and technologies we are developing are usable and relevant," Pappas explained.

The inaugural Advisory Council is to feature 10 companies: Automatic Data Processing, Inc., AT&T, BT, eBay, Nationwide, STRATO Rechenzentrum AG, Tokyo Electric Power Company, Verizon Business and The Walt Disney Company.

However, Pappas said that the group would be updated each year and urged other data center operators to join the Green Grid and help provide feedback on the consortium's work.

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