PUE/DCIE Monitoring Tool - EDSA's Paladin System

August 23, 2008 Dave Ohara

EDSA announces a PUE/DCIE monitoring tool.

EDSA Introduces PUE-DCiE Advisor
for Increasing Data Center Energy Efficiency
EDSA’s Paladin® Live™ is one of thefirst power analytics software program to automatically calculate and present power efficiency ratings, using standards published by The Green Grid
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – August 21, 2008 – EDSA Corp., developers of the Paladin® platform of power analytics™ software, today announced the release of its Paladin® Live PUE-DCiE Advisor™ in support of the new electrical power efficiency standards developed by the global IT association, The Green Grid. The Green Grid is a collaborative organization of approximately 200 leading technology organizations, led by such firms as AT&T, Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and others for which whom mission-critical computing and environmental responsibility are driving corporate priorities.

To embrace the organization’s standards, EDSA’s Paladin Live power systems diagnostics platform has been enhanced to automatically present users with The Green Grid’s Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and data center infrastructure efficiency (DCiE) ratings in real-time. Used in conjunction with Paladin Live’s new Paladin® BlackBoard™ option, users gain the valuable ability to take a baseline model of their operations, and – in real time – allow them to make changes or propose “what if” scenarios, allowing them to project the future impact of those changes on the calculation of PUE or DCiE.

This looks nice on the surface. i would be more interested in a diagram that shows all their monitoring points that support their PUE/DCiE calculations.

The Paladin Live PUE-DCiE Advisor feature attacks the problem of energy inefficiency in two ways: first, the Company’s Paladin® DesignBase™ computer-aided design (CAD) modeler allows power systems engineers to design, simulate, and analyze the power systems model to optimize energy usage prior to construction. Once the facility is operational, EDSA’s Paladin® Live™ platform continually diagnoses the facility’s performance by benchmarking it back against the design model. This continual comparison of design specifications with actual operating parameters helps to ensure that anomalies are quickly identified, isolated, and resolved.
By presenting its findings in PUE and DCiE format, Paladin Live helps data center operators, for the first time, to make informed, real-time decisions about the energy efficiency of their facilities, and develop actionable strategies for ensuring that their operations are as failsafe and energy efficient as possible.

As most of you know how you collect the numbers is critical to getting a good PUE calculation.

Digging a little further I found their Power DesignBase product on this page. Here is feature matrix of their different versions.

Microsoft Launches Next Generation Data Center in Des Moines, IA – Winning the Data Center PR War?

August 22, 2008 Dave Ohara

Microsoft officially announced its choice of Des Moines, IA to launch its next generation data center. News coverage is all over the web.

Here is the video from DesMoinesRegister

The one thing interesting about this announcement is a normal PR event would be the ground breaking where a handful of local officials and company executives smile while holding a shovel of dirt.

But, Microsoft has been able to escalate the status of a data center to a state press release. With logo’d cupcakes to honor the event.

There are tons of press coverage and the blogs have picked up on the Iowa data center as well. Contrast this with Microsoft’s Windows Vista PR team hiring Jerry Seinfeld to get visibility and credibility in the market. A little ironic Microsoft hires a comedian to get respect.

As DataCenterKnowledge wrote about the economic benefits of Google vs. Microsoft. Iowa is the new test area.

Many state and local governments have passed tax incentives to attract a Google data center, hoping it will convert struggling regions into high-tech hubs. It's part of a trend in which more economic development agencies are pursuing data center projects. There's no question that favorable environments can create data center clusters, a trend seen in many technology corridors. But here's the secret: If you're focused on developing a data center cluster in your area, you should be chasing Microsoft, not Google.

My vote is Microsoft will win the Iowa PR data center PR war because:

Microsoft is sharing its data center best practices and the data center industry recognizes this effort.
Microsoft’s Des Moines data center is the launch site for its latest generation of data center design.
Microsoft will hire within the state of Iowa. Google’s Council Bluffs location will have a large percentage of construction workers and employees coming from Omaha Nebraska. Why should the state Iowa give tax incentives to help the state of Nebraska? It is only a matter of time before the Iowa tax payers protest Google’s tax breaks.
When you look at the map below showing Chicago, Des Moines, and Council Bluffs. A question comes up why would Microsoft build data centers so close to each other? I have my own theories what Microsoft will do. These Microsoft guys are smart.

Will there be containers in Des Moines? ComputerWorld’s Eric Lai says yes.

A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that Microsoft plans to house the servers in shipping containers but declined to comment specifically on the size of the facility or the number of servers to be located there.

"We are still in the process of completing the design of the center. Once that is finalized, we will have an estimate for these questions," she wrote via e-mail.

However, Microsoft said its $500 million, 550,000-square-foot data center in Chicago will house up to 220 containers, each filled with as many as 2,000 servers, or 440,000 servers. The software maker said the server-filled containers are easier to transport, set up and maintain than servers on conventional racks, though not all observers agree.

It takes 5 hours to drive a container between Chicago and Des Moines. How’s that for a disaster recovery plan?

One funny thing about this picture

is Gov Chet Culver looks taller and bigger than Mike who is a big guy. Looking up the gov is an college football player so he is probably bigger than Mike. The gcod thing I found is the governor has an interest in Green.

Culver began his career as an environmental and consumer advocate in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

We can expect Microsoft’s Data Center to be as green as can be. There is no hydroelectric for carbon neutral power, but 20% of the power is reported to be coming from renewables.

Home Energy Monitoring Solutions, GreenBox gets Pilot Deal with Oklahoma Utility

August 21, 2008 Dave Ohara

GigaOm has a post about GreenBox’s Home Energy Monitoring Solution scoring a pilot with Oklahoma Gas and Electric.

Flash Creator Goes Green With New Startup, Greenbox

Katie Fehrenbacher, Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 4:06 PM PT Comments (0)

Greenbox, a startup founded by the creators of Flash, is trying to recreate the success of their online ecosystem for graphics and media — but this time for the power that flows into your home. This week, after Flash-founders Jonathan Gay and Robert Tatsumi have spent more than a year working on their software for home energy management, Greenbox says it has scored a pilot deal with Oklahoma Gas and Electric to test its software with a portion of the utility’s customers using smart meters.

For a startup like Greenbox, which is backed by the former CEO and CFO of Macromedia and aims to help residents cut back on energy use, utilities are the initial gatekeepers, so partnerships with the power providers is crucial. It’s a little like a mobile startup finally getting placement on a carrier’s site or having an app shipped on a handset. For Greenbox, the deal represents its first access to customers who can give feedback on the startup’s user interface — does it provide enough insight into power rates, does it affect behavior, how easy is it to navigate?

Greenbox VP of Marketing Matt Smith gave us a demo of the software this week, and from the looks of it, the interface is on its way, though still in the early stages. The premise is to help the customer understand electricity costs, and in that way it reminded me of financial startup Mint — it provides insight into an environment where customers have traditionally had very little transparency. And compared to competitors making similar software, the company is focusing on “actionable items” to develop an “ecosystem, not just software,” explains Smith. That could deliver value for developers, utilities, demand-response companies, smart-grid firms, smart-home hardware makers, and finally the power user.

GreenBox uses Zigbee for wireless devices. Their technical partners are

ZigBee Alliance

Ember Corporation

Daintree Networks, Inc.

The strength of GreenBox is the user interface/experience focus given the Adobe and Macromedia executives. In my prior life I used to work with both companies and they both have design and user interface in their DNA. But, they have fallen in the trap I see many energy monitoring solutions going for home consumers, and not the commercial market. Peak power usage during working hours is the biggest problem for electricity capacity, and this is the commercial market.

I do agree the home consumer have the passion for the subject more than commercial business, but as utilities run out of capacity commercial properties have a larger impact with fewer buildings. I have had many conversations with people who are after the home market and I tell them all go for commercial not home. The market is crowded as seen in this post listing 5 startups.

5 Energy Monitoring Startups to Help You Cut Home Power

Written by Katie Fehrenbacher

Posted May 19th, 2008 at 12:00 am in Startups

The 81 million buildings in the U.S. consume more energy than any other sector of the U.S. economy, including transportation and industry, says the U.S. government. Here’s five startups that are building software and hardware to help consumers and businesses cut down on power consumption. The more building owners know about the power they use, the easier it is to cut energy and carbon-emissions — a case of knowledge equals less power (used).

Another home monitoring solution is Tendrill http://www.tendrilinc.com/

I looked at this market and still have an interest, but decided to put my own focus on the data center market as being the early adopter of effective power management best practices.

I will have a post next week about one of the data center energy monitoring solutions.

Technical Details Behind Intel’s Power Gating & Turbo Mode

August 20, 2008 Dave Ohara

Ars Technica has technical details on Intel’s power gating and turbo mode.

First an overview

Power gating, turbo mode, and the PCU

Most of the Nehalem disclosures in Gelsinger's keynote, and in the subsequent technical session on Nehalem, had to do with the new microarchitecture's power management capabilities. With Nehalem, Intel is introducing a technology that it calls "power gating." Traditionally, Intel has been able shut down an unused core by cutting its active power, but even though it's in a sleep state, that core is still dissipating plenty of power because of leakage current. Intel's power gating technique involves a new transistor design, and it lets Intel cut the leakage current, as well, so that the sleeping core's power dissipation drops to near zero.

When one or more of the cores on a Nehalem chip are powered down, the processor can divert extra power to the cores that are in use by increasing their clockspeed and voltage. (This is kind of like the "divert power to the main thrusters," thing that Scottie would always do in Star Trek.) This gives the active cores extra performance headroom while permitting the overall processor to remain in the same power envelope, and Gelsinger noted that it effectively gives each core two extra speed bins worth of performance.

Here are technical details on what is on the chip.

Nehalem's power gating, turbo mode, and other dynamic power saving features involve a complex coordination of a huge array of on-die sensors and circuit blocks on different parts of the chip, a feat that would have been impossible to pull off on a four- or eight-core processor without some centralized means of processing sensor data and orchestrating the power changes. So for Nehalem, Intel's designers have introduced a brand new major functional block, the power control unit (PCU).

Nehalem's PCU is a relatively large programmable microcontroller that uses firmware to implement various sophisticated power optimization algorithms, and committing such large amount of die space to such a complex block is a fairly dramatic move, especially in the name of power savings. I don't remember the exact transistor count (it's in the millions, and Gelsinger remarked that it was the size of a 486), but Intel is paying a hefty price in transistors and power for this unit. This being the case, it must have a dramatic impact on Nehalem's overall power consumption under load if it's able to more than pay for itself in net power savings.

It will be interesting what the real world performance tests show.

More News on Microsoft’s Container Data Center, But What is Inside?

August 20, 2008 Dave Ohara

News.com has an article on Microsoft’s Container Data Centers.

Microsoft's data centers growing by the truckload

Posted by Ina Fried

Once upon a time, Microsoft used to fill its data centers one server at a time. Then it bought them by the rack. Now it's preparing to load up servers by the shipping container.

Starting with a Chicago-area facility due to open later this year, Microsoft will use an approach in which servers arrive at the data center in a sealed container, already networked together and ready to go. The container itself is then hooked up to power, networking and air conditioning.

"The trucks back'em in, rack'em and stack'em," Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie told CNET News. And the containers remain sealed, Ozzie said. Once a certain number of servers in the container have failed, it will be pulled out and sent back to the manufacturer and a new container loaded in.

It's just one way that Microsoft is trying to cope in a world where it adds roughly 10,000 servers a month.

As much talk as there is about the containers, a part we do not know is what is in the containers. Here are hints Microsoft is pushing for higher efficiency server hardware.

Gone are the days in which Microsoft settled for off-the-shelf hardware to fill its server farms. These days, Microsoft is looking for servers designed to its exact needs. It's not just that Microsoft doesn't want servers that have keyboard or USB ports--it wants motherboards that don't even have the added wiring necessary to support those things that it will never use. Such moves eliminate cost, space and power consumption.

"We are not physically building our servers, but there is very deep engagement (with the computer makers)," Josefsberg said.

Even a 1 percent or 2 percent reduction in power consumption makes a big difference, Josefsberg said. As it is, Microsoft is trying to cram a whole lot of gear in a small space. While server racks at a Web hosting facility might have power densities of 70 watts to 100 Watts per square foot, things are packed far more tightly in the containers, which might be consuming in the thousands of watts of power per square foot.

Watch for the Server OEMs making noise about new server skus. I wrote about how Microsoft is influencing the industry with its purchasing power.

Given the purchasing by Microsoft's data center properties (search, hotmail, maps,etc.) are now driving Server OEMs with custom RFPs like the CBlox RFP, OEMs are building exactly what Microsoft wants to run a more efficient data center. And, versus Google's model of requiring exclusive designs no one else in the industry can purchase, the Microsoft skus spill into the rest of the market.

People can argue the benefits of containers, but listening to Mike Manos and Christian Belady, part of what the containers give Microsoft is a method to determine the compute per watt efficiency for what is in the container.