Reducing energy consumption and costs is priority #1 in data centers worldwide.
Power is typically the largest component in a data center’s operating costs. Consider this:
The power utilized in a data center typically comprises 40% of a company’s overall power bills.
With the skyrocketing costs of energy – and the global demand for greener IT operations – reducing energy consumption is now the single biggest priority in the data center. And being able to track, analyze, and report on energy consumption is rapidly becoming a corporate mandate. Companies today need an integrated, end-to-end approach to power management that tells them where energy consumption and costs can best be reduced. Says Gartner, “Without such an integrated approach, it will be almost impossible to account for energy consumption and to use technology to optimize and regulate its use” (Gartner Research: Data Center Infrastructure Management, The Benefits of an Integrated Energy Management Software Approach, April 2010).
Fortunately, the iTRACS CPIM™ platform can help.
A single view of power consumption across the entire power chain.
There is a significant difference between simple point-to-point power monitoring and the ability of iTRACS to monitor and manage power in the context of the entire power chain, end to end, from the street right down to each port on each device, across the entire physical infrastructure.
iTRACS offers integrated “single pane” visibility into the power chain so you can measure, analyze, and reduce energy consumption and costs not only in the data center, but across your entire building and facilities infrastructure. The CPIM platform can collect all of your energy-related data in continuous time – from power strips, server-based energy management tools, HVAC, PDUs, and other equipment – and drop it into a single, central CPIM repository. This information is then managed in the CPIM environment and presented to you in a holistic, context-rich view that makes it easy to understand your overall power burn, where energy consumption can be reduced, the potential cost savings associated with that reduction, and how to do it with optimum speed and efficiency.
Our dynamic 3D visualization transforms your power usage data from mere static information into actionable insight based upon the software’s unique ability to see, understand, and show you the myriad interrelationships between all of your individual devices, assets, and physical components – including every aspect of power and network connectivity. You can analyze power circuits from individual ports on individual servers all the way out to the transformer at the street.
Using this information, you can quickly and accurately map out specific, quantifiable strategies to reduce energy consumption and costs.
Establishing power usage baselines.
With iTRACS, power consumption information can be used to establish a baseline, define goals, and determine targets for where you want power to be. You may want to hold the amount of power consumed constant while increasing the overall capacity of the facility, or you may want to reduce the amount of power that’s used. iTRACS CPIM can report on power in a variety of ways, making these tasks easier.
Using “what if” scenarios.
iTRACS uses 3D visual tracking to show you what’s happening in real time and also to simulate “what if” scenarios of power failure, revealing which equipment items across the whole of the infrastructure would be impacted if power went down.
Did the “what if” failure start in a power circuit? A patch panel? A switch? Where are all of the fail points of this circuit? Where is power not redundant and which IT devices are affected? iTRACS “what if” scenarios give you the complete picture, vital to assessing both the impact of the failure in terms of equipment that will need to be dealt with and the potential business impact of the failure.
For example, you can use iTRACS to simulate the failure of a PDU. Red indicates devices that have failed as a result of the outage. Dual powered assets that have failed only a single side of their power are shown in yellow, and assets related via network connectivity to the assets directly affected by the outage are shown in blue. In a fully redundant scenario, none of the assets appear in red. You’re 100% protected against a power failure.
Deep-dive reporting
iTRACS offers robust reporting and insight into your current and potential future power states. Historical trending and forward projections of energy utilization and efficiency are just a few keystrokes away – whether you want insight into your data center power burn or the overall power consumption associated with all corporate buildings, systems, and assets.
