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Data Center Power Testing Now Available from Fujitsu Laboratories
By Susan J. Campbell TMCnet Contributing Editor
Testing the consumption of data center power is a key focus of any organization seeking to reduce its energy usage and take a more “green” approach to internal processes. Fujitsu (News - Alert) Laboratories says it is now able to instantly test fluctuations in power consumption through an entire data center, while also claiming to be the first company to do so.
According to this DatacenterDynamics report, all previous technologies for simulation were so slow they were incapable of real-time testing of data center power. That claim is disputed by Romonet, the U.K. company and marketer of Prognose, another data center power predictive modeling tool the company launched at last year’s DatacenterDynamics London conference.
Romonet was an early presence in the modeling market, and while disputing Fujitsu’s claim to be first with the technology, welcomes the company into the market sector.
Fujitsu’s technology is designed to predict thermal flows with calculation speeds over 1,000 times faster than any previously performed. With the technology, Fujitsu is able to fully model air conditioning, ICT hardware, along with all other pieces of equipment involved keeping the data center running smoothly. The company’s simulation technology of data center power consumption was accurate to within a five percent margin of error.
The company says it has originated the, “world’s first technology that can instantly simulate the ways that power consumption is changed in accordance with server load concentration and air conditioning controls,” according to Fujitsu Laboratories Europe.
Complete and accurate simulation is key since, according to Fujitsu, direct testing of data center power is impossible when it comes to, “allocating server load or changing the number of running servers in response to fluctuations in processing load, or controlling air conditioning in response to server utilization and temperature – using an actual data center.”
Fujitsu technology actually diminishes the number of calculations which must be performed resulting in its one thousand factor calculation rate improvement. By retrieving information such as temperature and flow pattern ahead of time, Fujitsu is able to perform simulations of thermal flow within a building.
In doing so, the company expects to demonstrate how linking air-conditioning and server controls could actually bring down data center power consumption by perhaps 40 percent. To drive the point home, Fujitsu plans to put the application to the test at its own data center. The company hopes to achieve greater data center power efficiency as a result.
Predictive modeling for data centers is important technology which accurately forecasts energy consumption which, in turn, is pivotal in determining a total cost for data center operations.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Carrie Schmelkin
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