Content
New! Addressing Organizational Behavior Issues to optimize IT and Facilities Energy Efficiency
Focusing on interactions between IT and facilities departments, this White Paper identifies how greater cooperation by these departments can greatly enhance how data centers are designed, built, and operated so as to maximize resources and provide the levels of service needed by IT.
>>download
New! The Green Grid Metrics: Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE) Detailed Analysis.
This paper serves as a follow-up to the previously published The Green Grid Metrics: Describing Data Center Power Efficiency white paper. The paper provides a detailed analysis to support and strengthen the DCiE metric with the intent of enabling data center managers collectively to derive and use DCiE as a global standard metric.
>>download
New! Green Grid Productivity Indicator
This White Paper proposes a tool which visualized how effectively the resources in the data center are being used. Through the use of a radial graph, relevant indicators such as data center efficiency, data center utilization and IT utilization can be quickly and clearly communicated to provide organizational awareness. The Green Grid recommends the use of this approach moving forward to help provide clarity on resource use.
>>download
New! Data Center Baseline Study Report
This paper provides a detailed analysis of two questions that The Green Grid sought to explore more deeply: "what, if anything, is driving a need to increase energy efficiency", and "what are the obstacles to becoming more energy efficient in your data center." The content of this paper was presented at the Technical Forum in February and the session was highly rated by attendees.
>>download preview
>>download full paper - for members only
A Framework for Data Center Energy Productivity
This paper introduces a new family of data center resource optimization metrics designated collectively as Data Center Productivity (DCP) metrics and presents the first derivative metric within this family called Data Center energy Productivity (DCeP). The DCeP metric provides a unique analytical tool that may be used to track the overall work product of a data center per unit of energy expended to produce this work. While DCeP in its current form is only applicable to improvements in a single data center, it is hoped that this work will provide a framework to develop similar metrics for comparing across different data centers.
>>download
The Green Grid Peer Review of "DC Power for Improved Data Center Efficiency" by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
As the demands on data centers increase, creating higher costs and power usage, the industry is looking for ways to increase efficiency and decrease operating costs in the data center. One potential area of increased efficiency lies in the power distribution configuration within the data center and its IT equipment. In early 2007, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) posted results of a direct current (DC) demonstration project, which operated from June to August of 2006. Here, a peer review of that study is provided, including a critical review of the results as well as a discussion of next steps in the evaluation of this and other power distribution topologies.
>>download
Five Ways to Reduce Data Center Server Power Consumption
This document only addresses changes that can be made at the server1 level. Other white papers from The Green Grid will address power, cooling, airflow, consolidation, virtualization and a host of other mechanisms to increase efficiency elsewhere in the data center. Reducing energy use at the point of consumption (the server) provides benefits at all other levels by reducing load on power and cooling facilities which in turn reduces their own energy use.
>>download
The Green Grid Data Center Power Efficiency Metrics: PUE and DCiE
The Green Grid is an association of IT professionals seeking to dramatically raise the energy efficiency of data centers through a series of short-term and long-term proposals. This is an update to the very first white paper published by the Green Grid in February 2007 called "Green Grid Metrics: Describing Data Center Power Efficiency" to refine the nomenclature and intent of that paper. In that paper, The Green Grid proposed the use of Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and its reciprocal, Data Center Efficiency (DCE) metrics, which enable data center operators to quickly estimate the energy efficiency of their data centers, compare the results against other data centers, and determine if any energy efficiency improvements need to be made. Since then, PUE has received broad adoption in the industry but DCE has had limited success due to the misconception of what data center efficiency really means. As a result, this paper reaffirms the use of PUE but redefines its reciprocal as data center infrastructure efficiency (DCiE). This refinement will avoid much of the confusion around DCE and will now be called DCiE.
>>download
Existing Metrics, Guidelines and Programs Affecting Data Center and IT Energy Efficiency
In this paper, The Green Grid™ provides a survey of various organizations that are currently investigating issues surrounding data center power and energy. For each organization considered herein, this paper provides an overview of the stated purpose and scope of the organization, a list of any metrics or programs managed by the organization that relate to data center energy efficiency, and, where appropriate, The Green Grid's™ commentary on the organization or metric. This work forms the backdrop for future white papers to be published by The Green Grid™ in which the organization will extend the state of the art by proposing or endorsing new technologies, new metrics, and new best practices.
>>download - for members only
Qualitative Analysis of Power Distribution Configurations for Data Centers
Many different power distribution configurations exist today that can be used to power a data center. Each of these configurations has its own advantages and disadvantages that can have a major impact on all aspects of the facility. This paper discusses the qualitative differences between seven possible configurations that can either be found in the United States or Canada today, or could be used in the future.
>>download
The Green Grid Opportunity
The Green Grid examines why it is so important to define and propagate the best energy efficiency practices in datacenter operation, construction and design. In this paper, The Green Grid has identified both short-term and long-term objectives to increase the energy efficiency of datacenters and IT infrastructure equipment.
>>download
Guidelines for Energy Efficient Data Centers
The Green Grid provides a framework for improving the efficiency of both new and existing data centers. The nature of data center energy consumption is reviewed and best practices are suggested that can significantly impact operational efficiencies.
>>download
The Green Grid Metrics: Describing Data Center Power Efficiency
The Green Grid explains the use of the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric, along with its reciprocal the Data Center Efficiency (DCE) metric. These metrics are designed to allow a data center operator to relatively quickly estimate the energy efficiency of their data center, as well as to quantify how the data center stacks up against its peers.
>>download
