More support for server power management

It was a great week for those endorsing the concept of actively-managing the power status of servers to drastically reduce data center power consumption.

First, Andy Lawrence with The 451 group outlined it as

... a technology that optimizes the energy efficiency of computers and other electronic devices by reducing power consumption to the lowest possible point while still supporting minimal agreed business or functional objectives. It does this by placing equipment or components into reduced power states according to policies and schedules or in response to a drop in machine utilization. It can also restore equipment to a fully functioning mode according to the same principles.

In one of his recent works, "Power management: a three-phased, multispeed market" that there are 3 waves of power management:

1) Enterprise Desktop power management
2) Datacenter/server power management
3) Integrated datacenter power distribution management

"Although this is a market in its infancy, [server] power management will be an important, if not critical, piece of the technological jigsaw, we believe, and one that needs to be in place to run an eco-efficient datacenter. Cassatt is one of a handful of companies making the early running. Cassatt Active Response 5.1 adds a critical on-demand capability that improves the business case for the technology.

Bridget Botelho in SearchDatacenter.com also managed to speak with a user of Cassatt's active response. The company began with a small environment of about eight devices, mostly servers. Once the use of Active Power Management was validated, the company increased to 40 devices, and now successfully runs Active Power Management on about 120 devices.

The global company has 5,000 racks of servers, most of them in Sunnyvale, Calif., and others located around the world. Prior to using Cassatt, the company had no way to manage system power, but the high cost of power in California and a sense of corporate responsibility prompted it to try Cassatt's software.

I really like the way the user (who shall remain nameless) endorses the concept (at right)