Mixed Tenant Data Center

For many data centers, determining total energy consumption may be surprisingly difficult. A common situation is a data center in a mixed tenant environment, such as a corporate campus or an office tower, in which the “mechanical yard” is a shared resource. The mechanical yard refers to the generator, chillers, cooling towers, and all associated pumps and fans supporting the facility’s power and cooling. Fundamentally, the objective is to determine how much energy the mechanical yard consumes and what portion of the cooling load is allocated to the data center.

The mechanical yard can be incorporated into the PUE calculations in a number of ways. Full instrumentation is always nice to have, but in most cases, approximations are necessary. In an ideal situation, sub-metering would be available for the mechanical yard’s power. On the other hand, what options are available to the large population of data centers that don’t have perfect instrumentation and can’t afford the time and/or money to purchase and install it right now?

Operational Intelligence for the Extended Power and Cooling Chain—From the Grid to the Chassis

Modius offers OpenData Enterprise Edition for overcoming trickier power monitoring challenges commonly associated with mixed tenant data centers and multi-site operations. OpenData software by Modius provides the data collection, integration, normalization and unified view of the extended power and cooling chain, from the grid to the chassis. Real-time monitoring of all critical infrastructure assures your information is always current. Performance data is presented intelligently, so you can see what matters at a glance. And, a unified alarm management system mitigates spurious alarms and helps you make sense of the chaos.

When You Need to Get it Right the First Time

Whether the organization’s concern is PUE, carbon footprint or simply reducing the energy bill, the monthly report from the utility won’t always provide the information needed to identify specific opportunities for improvement. Even smart meters might not be granular enough to identify short-term surges, and they won’t enable correlation of the data with that from other equipment in the facility. By providing visibility and decision support, OpenData takes the guesswork out of data center infrastructure management.

To learn more, please read Dr. Jay’s Technical Tip on Determining PUE in an Imperfect World.

Watch our OpenData demo now or contact us to learn more about how we can help.