Sentilla Blog RSS

Why PUE is not enough: Data Center World presentation

Joe Polastre — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:20:23 -0500

Why PUE is not enough: Data Center World presentation

At AFCOM's Data Center World in Nashville, I presented "Why PUE is not enough: How to measure TRUE success in the data center". In this talk, I discuss a number of different metrics that merge IT performance with consumed resources (energy, cooling, and space). Also considered is how to carefully choose metrics, so that you use the right metrics to gauge your performance and progress, whether in application performance, IT utilization, energy footprint, or available capacity. I really enjoyed the talk and had a great interactive audience (sorry that you can't always hear the audience questions in the recording). I look forward to being invited back to present follow on educational sessions at future AFCOM conferences (such as DCW in October in Las Vegas). I had a fun time putting together this particular talk, which is different in a number of ways than the talks I gave earlier this year at Data Centre World in London, and the GSMI Green Data Center Conference in San Diego.

If you have any questions or feedback on the talk, please leave them in the comments. And to Google and Facebook, I really wasn't trying to pick on you!

Sentilla Energy Manager 3.0

Joe Polastre — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:14:59 -0500

Sentilla Energy Manager 3.0

Today, Sentilla announced version 3.0 of Sentilla Energy Manager. My role at Sentilla is varied, but one of my responsibilities is creating and managing the product roadmap. With version 3.0, I'm really excited about how much we've added into this release. SEM 3.0 is truly revolutionary, providing a ton of features and functionality that no other vendor provides. It is built on our Sentilla Software Platform, which is in its 4th generation, is very robust, and has served as the basis of all of our products since 2006.

Industry Updates: Facilities+IT and Open Source Data Centers

Joe Polastre — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:14:49 -0500

Industry Updates: Facilities+IT and Open Source Data Centers

The last few weeks have been busy, with VMWare buying EMC's Ionix assets and the "open source" data center. I've been talking to the press and commenting on some blogs about the progress, and am posting a round up here.

First, there's an article in Automated Buildings about the need for IT and Facilities to come together to best manage energy in the data center. This is a position that I've held, because the data center is not there to be a cooling plant. Instead, IT impacts facilities and everyone must have a view of what's going on to run efficiently and effectively.

There was an announcement about an Open Source Data Center initiative between Mike Manos and GreenM3. I commented on the blog post, and James Niccolai from IDG wrote up a nice article about the topic and interviewed me for my take on the topic. I'm still skeptical about how this will actually move forward, and who will be doing the heavy lifting to build the architecture required, but I'm following it closely.

Data Center Efficiency Starts with the Software

Joe Polastre — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:53:35 -0500

Data Center Efficiency Starts with the Software

With a lot of the data center energy efficiency focus on facility improvements and virtualization, I've decided we need to take a step back and look instead at the applications. As Moore's Law has increased the capabilities of servers, and disk density has doubled (roughly) every year, we're no longer as constrained as we used to be by physical resources.

I am, at the heart of it all, a computer scientist. In grad school, I spent a lot of time working on optimizing software that runs on embedded systems -- little microcontrollers with limited resources. At the core of these systems was power. If you wrote your code inefficiently, not only would it fail to fit on the device, it would also burn through batteries. And as data center operators know, a server without power is a VERY BAD thing.

So why is it then, that we don't look at how efficiently our applications are written? There's no apples-to-apples energy comparison, and few people take energy into account when buying a software package. My prediction is that will change. In a few years, when you evaluate whether to buy (or renew) SAP or Oracle, you'll ask about the energy operating cost of those software packages over the life of the contract.

We Can Do Better

Joe Polastre — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:06:28 -0500

We Can Do Better

On a recent flight, I had the pleasure of watching a number of episodes of E2, a PBS show narrated by Morgan Freeman. The shows cover a number of environmental topics and features Stephen Chu, former energy expert at LBL and now Secretary of Energy. If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend finding a few episodes. Unfortunately, only the "design" episodes are on hulu, the "energy" and "transport" episodes have not been posted online.

A couple of things stood out at me, and I came away with a feeling that we could do better at achieving energy efficiency and energy independence. Not just because we should as a planet-saving activity, but because we've actually gone backwards in efficiency in the last 100 years.

First, consider this statistic: The first Ford Model T accepted both Ethanol and Gasoline, and got 25 miles to the gallon. Today's cars average 21 miles to the gallon, and while it only costs $50 to outfit a gasoline car at production with Ethanol capabilities, few cars are actually "FlexFuel".

Sentilla Energy Manager Named Green Product of the Year

Taryn Irulegui — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:42:02 -0500

Sentilla Energy Manager Named Green Product of the Year

Sentilla is honored to win another product award. We’re very excited that energy management has gained so much traction this year. But it’s no surprise. As the UK embraces the Carbon Reduction Commitment and with the publication of the European Code of Conduct for Data Centres, it has become clear that a solution is needed for managing and tracking data center energy use. The award validates the need for energy management in data centers and Sentilla is humbled to be part of this movement.

Gear up to manage energy in 2010

Joe Polastre — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:22:16 -0500

Gear up to manage energy in 2010

When it comes to management, one of the things I ask customers is what management tools they use. There's always a laundry list, some open-source (like Nagios) and some from large software vendors (like Tivoli). These IT management tools are used to get a handle on computing, storage, networking, and applications -- 4 of the primary assets in a data center. But when I ask what they use for energy management, there's usually a blank stare. Energy, as you may have guessed, is the fifth major asset. As with any of these assets, if you run out of capacity, your applications go down. If you don't manage them proactively, your performance suffers. Energy is no different. And with pressure to reduce cost, improve performance, plan for increased or decreased capacity, or mitigate potential risks, management tools are the key to accomplishing these tasks.

Awareness of the importance of energy in the data center has grown dramatically in the last few years. And due to the importance of energy in business continutity and contribution to data center operating costs, it is logical that it is time to get a handle on energy in 2010.

Does data center location matter?

Joe Polastre — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:45:53 -0500

Does data center location matter?

On the same day, two opposing articles have been published with completely opposite points of view. On one side, Brian Fry argues that location no longer matters and we should build data centers in the most efficient locations and supply fiber connectivity to them. On the other side, Paris Burstyn argues that location and latency are business critical for companies resulting in Equinix's acquisition of Switch and Data.

At the center of Brian's argument is that low cost, low carbon power is good for data centers. If you can live with your data centers a few milliseconds away from everyone else's, then your IT operations can be greener and cheaper, a win-win scenario. But in the world where every millisecond counts, that's not the right solution for all industries.

Six Steps to Efficiency or How to Achieve 40%

Joe Polastre — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:22:18 -0500

Six Steps to Efficiency or How to Achieve 40%

Figuring out how to implement the right efficiency plan in the data center is a daunting task. I often start discussions with customers by asking "How much electricity does your data center use?" and "How much are you paying for electricity?" While these may seem like such amazingly fundamental questions, you'd be surprised by how many people don't know the answers or respond with "Let me go and look that up."

Further confusing the issue is vendors claims about what they can achieve. Have you heard the marketing campaign about virtualization reducing your energy bill by 80%? Sounds compelling right? The trouble is, you're not going to virtualize every server in your facility and shut off every chiller. Let's say 20% of your servers can be virtualized (such as staging, dev, and test), and your servers consume 70% of your IT energy consumption, which is 45% of your facility's energy consumption. So if we add that up, .8*.2*.7*.45 = 5%. That means that, for your data center, 80% savings just became 5%.

This means that data centers really need to figure out what their strategy is. And, of course, you want the biggest bang for your buck. By measuring your baseline, applying the various strategies to it, and calculating ROI, a plan can be formulated that makes sense of the efficiency measures for your specific facility. I've written an eWeek HowTo titled How To Achieve 40% Energy Savings In Your Data Center.

The Hype of Green IT

Joe Polastre — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:20:18 -0500

The Hype of Green IT

Kevin O'Marah from AMR Research claims that Green IT receives a disproportionate amount of attention compared to other green initiatives. His blog has stirred some discussion in the office and here I'm weighing in on the topic. Understandably, Kevin's post was likely intended to stir up discussion, so I realize I'm playing into what the blog was likely designed to accomplish. (Oh, and try googling "carbon accounting" if you want to catch the hype curve.)

Measuring Success In The Data Center

Joe Polastre — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:02:53 -0400

Measuring Success In The Data Center

It is not always clear what the right way is to measure the success of your data center's energy strategy. While many would promote PUE as the right way to go, it does not tell the full story. Think about these examples:

A data center is commissioned, but no IT equipment is installed. The PUE is infinitely high, but it doesn't mean the data center is inefficient. As IT equipment is added, the PUE drops but the data center's efficiency did not improve.
As servers and storage are consolidated or virtualized, the overall power consumption of the data center decreases. Not only is there a reduction in the IT power, but a smaller corresponding reduction in the cooling required. While the net is a win (more power capacity and less power usage), PUE typically increases.

These aren't the only bad examples of PUE, but they illustrate the fact that it is simply a ratio and it must be understood when talking about it.

Energy Efficiency Becomes A Focal Point for IT Professionals

Spence Murray — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:12:04 -0400

Energy Efficiency Becomes A Focal Point for IT Professionals

Recent studies indicate that, as IT professionals look to trim power expenditures and move toward ever greener IT solutions, energy efficiency metrics will become an ever more critical data point in their decision-making process. According to a recent Gartner
study, many IT and data center managers consider green IT a top priority, but have yet to embrace measurement and monitoring infrastructure critical to determine energy-saving measures and satisfy government regulations.

Efficiency metrics span the gamut from the GreenGrid's PUE and DCIE to the E.U.'s Code of Conduct for Data Centres Energy Efficiency. In all cases, energy utilization measurement and analysis is a necessary step to understanding how IT architecture and provisioning can be improved. Data indicating a server's idle power usage, work done per watt, comparison of energy usage for comparable equipment, and sustained efficiency over time merely scratch the surface.

The Big Picture of Green

Jason LeBrun — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:35:28 -0400

The Big Picture of Green

The Amazon Kindle is a compact device that uses e-ink display technology that doesn't consume power when displaying a static image. The act of reading a book generally involves long views of static images. As a result, the Kindle can achieve very long battery life when used for normal reading.

In a continuing trend to examine everything possible with a green magnifying glass, the Cleantech Group has recently released a report about the effective carbon footprint of Amazon's Kindle eReader. In particular, they compare the carbon footprint of the Kindle to the carbon footprint generated by reading the same amount of books on paper. Since the release of the Kindle, this question has been posed a number of times, but this is the first comprehensive report to take an at least somewhat rigorous approach to the problem.

EasyJet vs Your Data Center

Joe Polastre — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:23:58 -0400

EasyJet vs Your Data Center

Green Jobs

Jason LeBrun — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:17:49 -0400

Green Jobs

When I attended the Sustainable Industries Economic Forum last October, there was a pervasive excitement for a bright future---ballasted by so-called Green Jobs. The keynote speaker Van Jones, as well as a number of other speakers in the forum, spoke of the new "Green-Collar economy," in which unemployment is all but eliminated since everyone is going to be retro-fitting old buildings, inventing new technologies, and analyzing energy consumption.

At the polar opposite of the spectrum, we have some members of congress who have recently commented on such green jobs, calling them "artificial." The crux of their argument is that proponents of green jobs are trying to create jobs out of thin air, where labor is not really needed, under a thin guise of environmental responsibility.

Sentilla Energy Manager wins ABA's 2009 Best Product of the Year

Taryn Irulegui — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:25:23 -0400

Sentilla Energy Manager wins ABA's 2009 Best Product of the Year

Sentilla is excited to win the American Business Award for Best Software Product of the Year for Sentilla Energy Manager for Data Centers. There are essentially two ways to solve the global warming problem: find alternative sources of energy or reduce the energy you're currently using. Wind, solar, and tide power are great.

They've come a long way in a short amount of time. But it's going to take a lot more than that to solve this problem because the world's appetite for energy is so immense. In addition to using alternative energy sources, we need to take a closer look at how we use today's energy and find ways to cut back. Improving energy efficiency can be tremendously valuable because the cheapest power plant ever built is the one you don't have to build.

This has never been more profound than in the case of data centers, whose energy consumption, globally, is greater than the country of Israel. This is clearly an area where much can be done and Sentilla Energy Manager for Data Centers is directly addressing this issue.

We appreciate the award and consider it validation that this market segment is not only in need of a solution, but that we are well positioned to provide an answer to this growing problem.

How efficient is Digital Realty Trust's LEED Data Center?

Joe Polastre — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:33:19 -0400

How efficient is Digital Realty Trust's LEED Data Center?

Digital Realty Trust (DRT) announced this week that one of their Santa Clara data centers has been awarded LEED-gold certification. There has been much debate over LEED certification and its role in the data center -- many LEED-platinum buildings have received an exemption from the USGBC to ignore data center energy in the LEED-platinum certification procedure.

DRT's new data center at 1500 Space Park in Santa Clara (located in a building previously occupied by Analog Devices) has also received incentives from Silicon Valley Power for verifiable steps they've taken to reduce the energy consumed by their data centers compared to industry averages. These rebates are estimated between $750,000 and $1,000,000 for the Santa Clara location. In a discussion I had with Mark Bramfitt at PG&E, he confirmed that they too are offering significant incentives for data centers that come to PG&E with verifiable kilowatt-hour savings. Incentive rates for 2009 are typically $0.05 to $0.15 per kwh saved, according to PG&E.

Sociogreening

Jason LeBrun — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:34:00 -0400

Sociogreening

Last month, I noticed an article in Wired, giving us yet another reason to despise spam email (as if we needed more). In addition to stealing our time, energy, and sanity, the article brings to light a study commissioned by McAfee and published by ICF International has quantized the environmental effects of spam. Since spam is largely unwanted, the energy that goes into sending, queuing, delivering, filtering, viewing, and deleting these emails is a complete waste. Yet another reason spammers should be ashamed of themselves.

Sentilla launches new version of energy management product

Taryn Irulegui — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:33:44 -0400

Sentilla launches new version of energy management product

Recently, there's been a slew of articles about how IT managers have identified that standardized access to power information over SNMP is one of the top ten problems that they face when managing energy.

We were listening. And today we announced the release of Sentilla Energy Manager for Data Centers version 2.1 which integrates all the great things in the original release like the ability to analyze your energy profile at each piece of equipment and we extended that to include third party equipment. That means that, within an hour of installation, you can get a high level overview of what's going on across the entire data center.

Sentilla ABA Finalist, Vote for us too

Taryn Irulegui — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:33:48 -0400

Sentilla ABA Finalist, Vote for us too

Pardon the shameless promotion, but there’s been such great news for Sentilla lately, we just had to share it with you. Sentilla Energy Manager for Data Centers was named a finalist in the American Business Awards last week in the category Best New Software Product of the Year. As part of this award, there’s a subset, the People’s Choice Stevie Awards. People can vote for their favorites here. If interested, there’s still time to cast your vote. Click here to vote. The polls close June 1. Stevie Award winners for both categories will be announced during the annual gala on Monday, June 22, in New York City and on the radio.

This was a pretty big honor, especially coming right on the heels of Sentilla CTO, Joe Polastre, being selected as one of BusinessWeek’s Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs for 2009 and his recognition as one of the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s 40 young professionals under the age of 40.