Is power consumption given on server accurate?

Raritan is a solution provider of secure IT infrastructure management solutions to improve data center productivity, especially overall power management efficiency. Raritan won the "Outstanding IT Product" category for its Power IQ Energy Management Software and PX intelligent power distribution units (iPDUs) with plug-and-play environment sensors.

Christopher McPherson, VP Sales & Marketing-Asia Pacific, Raritan shared details of company’s business in an interaction with Prasoon Srivastava of CIOL. Excerpts:

What is the reason for you to come up with power strip and not a cooling solution?

It is obvious that following the cost of power rising dramatically and increased uncertainty of global power availability, all levels of corporate management are now more focused than ever before on managing and conserving energy. Nowhere is this more critical than in the data center of the corporation, which can consume 25 per cent of the total energy in a typical IT intensive organization.

Due to increased reliance on computing to deliver mission-critical applications and the emergence of blade technology and virtualization, server density is dramatically increasing. These increases mean that data centers are running hotter and HVAC systems are working overtime to keep the center cool.

This, in turn, is driving energy costs up — a growing concern for IT, given the potential for this expense to become an above-the-line IT charge. Clearly, there’s a need to monitor data center power and temperatures - and adjust heating, cooling and airflow - to minimize power consumption while maintaining IT equipment uptime. Raritan Power strip helps in measuring the heat dissipation taking place in data center. Things that can be measured can be improved as well.

What are the challenges in this domain of the industry that gives Raritan an opportunity to establish itself in the market?

Data center management have been largely dependent on name plate servers where the power consumption mentioned on server is considered accurate. However, this is not true. Power consumption mentioned on servers is rarely accurate. When energy management was a low priority, IT managers could rely on simple calculations associated with name plate specifications to predict overall power usage in their data centers.

However, average data center power consumption has grown from 2.1 kilowatts per rack in 1992 to 14 kw/rack in 2006, according to a HP report. Simply multiplying the number of servers by their name plate ratings does not jive with the reality of actual energy consumption statistics. Datacenter Dynamics, in their Spring 2007 Conference Survey, found that the average power density among all respondents in the U.S. was 5.5kw/rack and the average maximum power density was 11.6 kw/rack.

As energy issues come under more scrutiny and as tools become available for accurate measurement, IT administrators and facilities managers should no longer rely on the published nameplate power ratings on their units and factor in accepted industry assumptions. Only through individual server measurement can managers accurately know what power their equipment is consuming and acquire precise numbers that will aid their energy efficiency planning efforts. This is where Raritan steps in.

Can you elaborate a little more on this name plate rating on servers?

Server manufacturers indicate a power rating value on the nameplate of every server. Data center administrators, however, know that this represents a worst-case scenario, and typical server power consumption never reaches the rated nameplate value.

One easy way to increase server density is to simply de-rate the nameplate power by a certain percentage — depending on the workload that’s deployed on the server. PTS-a data center solution provider refers to this de-rated value as the design rating of the equipment. It is typically 50—75 percent of the nameplate rating, and is used to size all power protection, distribution and cooling systems in the data center.

This percentage is still frequently higher than what is seen in actual use, but now more accurate, real-world numbers can be obtained through the use of intelligent PDUs. For example, by measuring power consumption of individual servers using intelligent PDUs, PTS’ analysis of Raritan’s IT equipment determined that consumption typically ranged from 20—85 per cent of the underlying equipment’s nameplate rating, averaging about 31 per cent — far less than the numbers typically used as the design rating of the equipment.

How has been the adoption trend of the power strip in the data centers?

Our power management tools have been well received by the market. We know this through not only our sale numbers but by the number of demos, enquiries generated and overall interest by the market. In fact, we are running behind our demo schedule and are in the process of training more partners in the market to meet the growing demand.

What is Raritan’s game plan to promote the product in India?

Raritan has always believed in focused promotions. We continue to do that with our power management tools. We have been creating awareness and educating the market through focused round tables, eDMs, telemarketing follow-throughs and partner training.

What is Raritan’s observation on the ROI for the data centers with deployment of the power strip?

It is a little early to comment on ROIs.