DataCenterKnowledge and WSJ write on the same subject today on moving resources around for optimization.

Hot spots in Motion from DataCenterKnowledge.

“The technology that delivers the most benefits for business but causes the most headaches for operation is virtual machine live migration,” writes Andreas Antonopoulos of Nemertes in a post titled “Dude, where’s my server?” An excerpt:

Live migration, also known as VMotion or XenMotion in the VMWare and Xen products respectively allows you to move virtual machines from physical server to physical server without any discernible interruption. … Wonderful features for business agility. But by making virtual machines mobile this feature makes troubleshooting even harder. Add the other features and you might have machines moving around automatically and constantly.

Andreas notes that tracking and managing VMs is critical to trouble-shooting. Moving virtual machines from server to server within a data center creates another challenge: as the computing load migrates, so does the heat load. A box that is underutilized one minute can become a high-density server in short order.

Retailers move employees to best times to maximize revenue from WSJ.

Retailers Reprogram Workers
In Efficiency Push

By VANESSA O'CONNELL
September 10, 2008; Page A1

LANGHORNE, Pa. -- Retailers have a new tool to turn up the heat on their salespeople: computer programs that dictate which employees should work when, and for how long.

AnnTaylor Stores Corp. installed a system last year. When saleswoman Nyla Houser types her code number into a cash register at the Ann Taylor store here at the Oxford Valley Mall, it displays her "performance metrics": average sales per hour, units sold, and dollars per transaction. The system schedules the most productive sellers to work the busiest hours.

Shoshannah White for The Wall Street Journal

Ann Taylor saleswoman Nyla Houser, a retired teacher, has gotten fewer work hours under a new 'workforce-management' system.

"We are under the gun to be a much more efficiently running organization," said Scott Knaul, director of store operations at the women's apparel retailer, which said earlier this year that it is closing 117 underperforming stores over the next few years. There was an initial "ego hit" for some employees, he said at a gathering of retailers in May. But the system, he said, has helped turn more store browsers into buyers.

DataCenterKnowledge points out the problem with heat, but the WSJ wants the opposite to turn up the heat, and drive sales.

Let’s hope a retailer doesn’t get a job in a data center, confuse the objective, and try to make the most expensive machines the hottest ones. :-) 

But, it does bring up an interesting issue with virtualization, should environmental conditions be part of the criteria for evaluating a VM move? 

I’ve always laughed at whenever I hear vendors like Microsoft and VMware talk about dynamic data center initiatives, and how things will just move automatically.  Wait.  Too much change creates chaos, and makes it hard to optimize. Every transition is an opportunity for failure.

The US EPA has the energy star program for Enterprise Server and Data Center.

Enterprise Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives

EPA is working with all interested parties to identify ways in which energy efficiency can be measured, documented, and implemented in data centers and the equipment they house, especially servers. Provided below are EPA's current initiatives in this area:

Consumer Reports raises Issues with the Energy Star program.  Hopefully, the server and data center program can avoid the pitfalls mentioned for appliances.

Qualifying standards are lax
About 25 percent of products in a category should qualify, according to the EPA. But until recently, for example, 92 percent of all dishwashers qualified. Under a tighter standard, it's now about 50 percent. A high number of residential-use oil-fired boilers (67 percent) and dehumidifiers (60 percent) also qualify for the Energy Star program.

Tests are out of date
Federal test procedures haven't kept pace with technology, a point Energy Star leadership conceded in a meeting with Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.

"A number of test procedures are out of date or problematic," says David B. Goldstein, codirector of the energy program at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "Part of the reason is that the DOE doesn't have the staff they need to do very much on test procedures. There's also willpower. They don't want to do it."

What's more, it usually takes the DOE three years to publish new rules—a period that includes comments from manufacturers, organizations such as Consumers Union, and others—and another three years for the updated minimum efficiency requirements to take effect. Comment cycles at other federal agencies are much shorter.

Input into the rule-making process by those who have a vested interest in easy-to-meet standards, such as manufacturers, can also help dilute those standards. "Because of all the parties involved, you may get a level that isn't as aggressive as it could be," says Jennifer Thorne Amann, director of the buildings program for the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

Companies test their own products
The DOE does not test products for compliance with its Energy Star standards; manufacturers do it. And there's no independent verification of what they report. Rather, the government relies on manufacturers to test their competitors' appliances and notify it of suspicious energy-use claims.

TechHermit has a post on

Ken Brill continues to use his bully pulpit to slow down Data Center Energy Efficiency measurement adoption

August 29, 2008

I am really quite flabbergasted at Ken Brill.  I am really beginning to think he is going crazy.   On Monday, Mr. Brill posted a comment on his blog at Forbes essentially going after the gaming and potential mis-use of metrics. 

TechHermit then details Ken's bully pulpit behavior.

1. Electricity is only one of a number of data center energy sources. Others include natural gas, steam, chilled water, diesel, free-cooling and one-pass cooling. So, if electricity alone is counted as an energy source, some sites will appear to be better than they really are.
2. I also find it humorous that he mentions his ludicrously non-adopted Site Infrastructure Energy Overhead metric.   This metric is essentially PUE.  I guess this wonderful metric could not be gamed either.   Or that it somehow incorporates the energy calculation of cooling the earths air for free-cooling. 
3. Given the amount of times he mentions PUE in negative connotations, I cannot but help think this a thinly veiled attempt to associate PUE with “Bad Marketeering” and “Green Washing”.

And, then TechHermit closes with

Having been involved in my local political scene I can tell you its a standard strategy.   That’s exactly what this smells of….politics.

Out of curiosity I went to the Forbes article ,and saw the overall rating was 5 stars, I clicked one star, and it dropped to 3 stars. Did someone at Uptime click on a 5 star rating, and my click on one star, averaged it to 3?

I have nothing personal against Ken, but I do agree with TechHermit's point.

In my opinion he is doing nothing more than creating significantly more mis-information and hesitance for companies to even begin measurement in the first place.

I've been sitting on this post for 5 days, not feeling I had enough information to post it.  But, 5 minutes ago I got the other piece of the puzzle in email, an Uptime Seminar promoting Four Metrics.

Last Chance to Register for Tomorrow's How to Apply the Four Metrics to Achieve Data Center GreennessOnline Seminar

In this two-hour, live online seminar, Institute Executive Director Ken Brill helps you holistically model the total energy use of your data center. Direct benefits of the course include a framework you can employ to understand the growing energy use in your data center as well as in the industry, a usable model of data center energy consumption upon which to base strategic planning, concrete examples of how best practices can curb your data center's energy consumption, and a set of metrics that you can apply to plan and better control energy use in your data center.

This essential online seminar will be delivered in two one-hour modules on September 3 and 4, October 8 and 9, November 5 and 6, and December 3 and 4. Save your seat by registering now. For a taste of what you can learn, watch Ken Brill's vodcast, What Constitutes Green IT.
Tuition: $295 (Non-Institute Members) / $250 (Institute Members)

And

Revolutionizing Data Center Energy Efficiency Public Seminar

The Institute's newest Public Seminar, Revolutionizing Data Center Energy Efficiency brings together the managerial and strategic approaches of How to Get IT and Facilities Together to Improve Data Center Energy Efficiency with the energy consumption modeling and metrics of How to Apply the Four Metrics to Achieve Data Center Greenness and provides a high-level method for driving energy efficiency from the top. This course is intended for the executive team and focuses on shared language to bridge silo-induced communication gaps, best practices, implementable and sharable metrics, strategic approaches to organizational impediments and more.
Tuition: $1195 (Non-Institute Members) / $995 (Institute Members)

I think this explains Ken's behavior to criticize PUE not as crazy, but a focus on Uptime's (Ken's) seminar revenue.