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The Data Center Energy Problem
In 2005, corporate data centers consumed 1.2 percent of all energy used in the U.S.-enough energy to fuel the state of Utah. Energy use by corporate data centers doubled from 2000 to 2005, and is expected to increase by another 75 percent by 2010. The Web, e-commerce and the growth of corporate databases have sparked a dramatic increase in the need for computational and storage capacity within corporate data centers, resulting in the broad adoption of new high-density servers, which require 10 to 15 times more power than the last generation of systems, and place a significant strain on data center power and cooling. At present, energy costs represent approximately 40 percent of a data center's operating budget.
As a result of the overall growth in the mission and capacity of IT data centers, most corporations will see their data center energy costs multiply by three to five times over the next five years, making power and energy the second largest IT cost factor at most data centers worldwide. Beyond the rise in cost, within two years, 50 percent of data centers will simply lack the power and cooling to meet core computing demand. At the same time, regulatory and public pressures are prompting the IT industry to create more efficient data centers. For these reasons, 70 percent of US CIO's surveyed by the Gartner Group in 2006 believe that data center power and cooling is their No. 1 challenge.
However, optimizing energy consumption requires detailed device-level data aggregated into a holistic view of supply, demand and consumption for individual devices and the business systems that use those devices. Standardizing device level data is difficult because data centers use servers, storage devices, communications equipment, HVAC and power conditioning products from many manufacturers that use different control languages, specialized protocols, and provide different kinds of data in various units of measurement.
To solve this problem, Modius has brought to market the first comprehensive management system designed around the requirements of data center power consumption.
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