September 2, 2009
“Virtualization” is the hot topic in data centers today. You can now virtualize your servers, allowing your CPU and memory resources to be treated as a single pool. CPU virtualization has allowed companies to run multiple applications on a single server and thereby more efficiently utilize data center server capacity. In a similar way, storage virtualization has created a pooled asset that can be more efficiently managed, allowing you to treat all of your storage as one single disc.
But there is yet a third virtualization opportunity that companies are just beginning to exploit: Power Consumption
Currently, power consumption at any data center is essentially fixed. However, imagine a world where all power consumption at all of your data centers represents one large pool of power consumers. What if you could increase or decrease the size of this pool to match customer demand? Or, if you have multiple data centers, what if you could move your power consumption around from one data center to another as demand increases, or as power prices change by time of day? As a result, power consumption essentially becomes virtualized, since power consumption at any particular data center is no longer fixed.
Impossible? No. In fact the technology to make this happen is available today, and deploying it can cut the cost of power in your data centers in half. So why does the “virtualization” of power consumption save so much?
Most data centers are built for peak load. And because of this, all of the gear—the servers, the switches, the routers—are left on all the time. This “always on” model assures that you will always meet any spikes in customer demand. But the problem is that it costs a fortune. Power consumes 25% - 30% of the average IT budget. U.S. companies spend more than $10B to power their data centers each year. With this “always on” model, power has essentially become a fixed cost.
The problem comes from the way servers are designed. Even if your CPU utilization varies from 5% to 95%, the amount of power the server draws only varies between 70% and 95%. So while your actual user demand may vary dramatically over the course of a day or a week, your power use actually changes very little. In fact, it really goes only one way: up! The more capacity you add, the higher your power bill.
Power Assure allows you to treat your servers—whether in one data center or across many—as a single pool. We calculate the exact number of servers required at any time to meet your actual user demand and keep these machines running at full capacity. We shut down (or put to sleep, whichever you prefer) the rest, and put them into a pool of “available capacity”. As demand increases, we turn on however many servers are needed to meet the spike and support the customer demand. All of this is done dynamically, in real time.
The end result is that power consumption becomes virtualized. You only pay for what you need to meet customer demand at any point in time. Your servers are treated as a single pool—or as multiple pools if you are running multiple applications—and the resources are distributed according to need and location. Just as with CPU and storage virtualization, the result is increased flexibility, higher efficiency, and significantly lower costs.
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