HP Server Power Capping

November 3, 2008 Dave Ohara

I was reading HP’s press announcement on HP Thermal Logic.

HP Cuts Costs, Triples Data Center Capacity with New Energy-efficiency Technologies, Services

HP today broadened its Green Business Technology initiative with additions to its HP Thermal Logic portfolio that include power-capping server technologies and energy-efficiency services designed to reduce costs and extend the life of data centers.

In traditional data centers, customers invest millions in capital expenditures to create a redundant power infrastructure that maximizes uptime. Additionally, to ensure power availability, IT administrators overprovision server energy.

Given few people appreciate the problem’s the data center facilities staff have to balance power load across circuits, and some zealous virtualization designs to move IT load, HP has an answer by Power Capping their servers.

HP Dynamic Power Capping helps customers reallocate power and cooling resources in the data center by dynamically setting or “capping” the power drawn by the servers. This eliminates the need for overprovisioning by precisely identifying how much power is actually required to run each server and setting a limit based on that usage. As a result, companies reclaim their overprovisioned energy to improve the capacity of their data center.

HP is even promoting it is going to be energy star compliant.

HP is among the first companies working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to qualify servers with an ENERGY STAR® rating. New HP ProLiant and BladeSystem servers are expected to meet or exceed ENERGY STAR standards by early 2009.

DataCenterKnowledge has more info as well.

Microsoft’s Mike Manos Throws Olive Branch to Uptime, will Ken Brill Accept Peace or Keep up his Insanity & Propaganda?

November 3, 2008 Dave Ohara

OK, I was a skeptic of Ken Brill’s craziness accusing Microsoft and Google of being the data center enemy, but Mike Manos has a post referencing one of his staff was at the event where Ken spoke.

In disappointment, there is opportunity. . .

November 3, 2008 by mmanos

I was personally greatly disappointed with the news coming out of last week that the Uptime Institute had branded Microsoft and Google as the enemy to traditional data center operators. To be truthful, I did not give the reports much credit especially given our long and successful relationship with that organization. However, when our representatives to the event returned and corroborated the story, I have to admit that I felt more than a bit let down.

I am in the process of writing an interview of Sun’s Dean Nelson, and Dean specifically credits Microsoft and Google’s data center openness as being one of the best things for the industry. I bet most of you agree with Dean.

Does anyone agree with Ken Brill?

Mike took the high road and offered an Olive Branch of Peace.

Lets not Overreact, There is yet hope

While many people (external and internal) approached me about pulling out of the Uptime organization entirely or even suggesting that we create a true non-for-profit end user forum, motivated by technology and operations issues alone, I think its more important to stay the course. As an industry we have so much yet to accomplish. We are at the beginning of some pretty radical changes in both technology, operations, and software that will define our industry in the coming decades. Now is not the time to splinter but instead redouble our efforts to work together in the best interests of all involved.

Others are curious what is motivating Ken. Is he on drugs? Has he gone crazy? Accusing Microsoft and Google as being the enemy?

1: one that is antagonistic to another ; especially : one seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent

2: something harmful or deadly <alcohol was his greatest enemy>

3 a: a military adversary b: a hostile unit or force

If Microsoft and Google are the enemy, if you believe in what Microsoft and Google’s methods of focusing on PUE are you too an enemy of Uptime Institute?

Is The Green Grid an enemy?

Is the EPA an enemy given their efforts to work with Microsoft and Google?

Uptime’s next Symposium is about Lean, Clean and Green.

SYMPOSIUM 2009: LEAN, CLEAN & GREEN

Grapple with the challenges of enterprise IT in the era of power grid shortages, escalating consumption, cost increases, and carbon footprint growth at the 4th Annual Institute Research Symposium: LEAN, CLEAN, and GREEN (April 13-16, 2009, Hilton New York Hotel).

Share knowledge on innovation in alternative energy, efficiency transformation, non-toxic recyclable electronics, and truly green data center operations.

Help the industry develop approaches to high-density data center computing that are more economically, operationally, and environmentally sustainable.

To be Lean, Clean & Green you think Microsoft and Google are your enemies. So, Microsoft and Google believe in fat, dirty, and brown?

All this illogical.

Sounds like Uptimes is practicing propaganda.

Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of thecognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.

Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.

—Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion

It is sad, but I don’t think Ken will accept the Olive Branch and set a path of peace with Microsoft and Google.

NOTE: I used the war/energy analogy to show how silly this is to call Microsoft and Google an enemy.

Finally, GreenM3 Beat My Own TechNet Post for “Green Data Center”

November 3, 2008 Dave Ohara

Well, it took me a year, and I finally worked my way up to the top of Google Search for “green data center,” beating my own TechNet article on “Build a Green Data Center.”

I used iwebtools’ google data center search tool to track my results across multiple google data centers.

This has been a fun year, and I’ve learned a lot writing this blog. One of the things I enjoy most in life is learning new things, so you can count on much more for the next year.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

-Dave Ohara

PS, I do think it is appropriate that Google found my post on ISO 26000 as this is a subject I think will have a big impact on Social Responsibility/Green efforts around the world.

IBM’s Management and Testing Software Updated for Energy Efficiency, Finally

November 3, 2008 Dave Ohara

ZDNet has a blog post regarding IBM’s latest SW announcements, and as the author exclaims, Finally. I agree.

IBM’s management and testing software updated with energy conservation in mind

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 1:20 pm

IBM has said and done plenty about tweaking its server and storage hardware for energy efficiency. Last week, it released some changes to its Tivoli management platform as well as its content management software designed with energy efficiency in mind. The company (finally!) has also started a new program that will help educate its business partners about how to aid their own customers with green technology and data center design projects.

- The Tivoli update layers the Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management module into the Tivoli Usage and Accounting Management Software. This will allow companies to collect energy and power consumption information (sliced and diced by individual, application, service, machine or department) and to assess usage trends.

- A new product from IBM’s software development and testing group, IBM Rational Test Lab Manager, can be used to better-configure both physical and virtual machines as better power consumption citizens. Another new product, Telelogic System Architect, ups the ante when it comes to reporting and managing the impact of technology on a company’s overall green agenda. The latter will be available later this year.

Here is the Tivoli update.

Rational Test Lab.

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Green IT Reputation

November 3, 2008 Dave Ohara

Avanade’s Toby Velte has a post discussing the perception and reputation of Green IT.

The Reputation Green IT Doesn’t Deserve

“For the rays, to speak properly, are not coloured” - Sir Isaac Newton, 1730. What Newton was talking about is our perception of color. The reality is that visible light is electromagnetic radiation of various wavelengths. So that rays of 400nm are perceived by people as blue, 540nm green, and 700nm as red. The point is that the rays themselves do not contain color; it’s people that create this perception in their brains. So, our ‘green’ will be perceived differently by a turtle or a bee. I like this observation because it demonstrates the fundamental disconnect from reality and perception. Green IT is suffering this disconnect at the moment.

The post goes on to discuss how people are pro-green, yet IT’s actions are lagging.

The bottom line Toby points out.

If the real challenge is to change the behavior of businesses to adopt Green IT principles, then I will put my money on the ability of money to drive that change. Let’s see Green IT for what it really is – the right way for organizations to treat their customers yet stay healthy and competitive.