Emerson Network Power Advances Energy Logic Strategy in Asia

Introduces universal measure for data center efficiency to quantify real return on investment from energy saving measures

KUALA LUMPUR, 18 December 2008 – Data center professionals now have a way of calculating the return on investment of energy efficient infrastructure and equipment using an industry-first metric from Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson (NYSE: EMR) and the global leader in enabling Business-Critical ContinuityTM.

The latest installment of Emerson’s Energy Logic framework advances the discussion started earlier this year about a universally accepted metric for data center output, without which efficiency cannot be accurately quantified. With its new white paper, Energy Logic: Calculating and Prioritizing Your Data Center IT Efficiency Actions, Emerson takes the next step by using a placeholder metric to highlight the value of measuring data center efficiency in the same way that litres-per-kilometre provides an easily understood, agreed-upon efficiency measure for cars.

“This is the first time that we’ve been able to show how a considered and structured planning approach to data center efficiency can measurably reward capital expenditure through ongoing operational savings, and by extension, demonstrate a measurable ROI,” says Anand Sanghi, Vice President Marketing, Emerson Network Power Systems, Asia Pacific.

“Other industries – telecommunications for example – have had these types of measures for years, but not so the IT industry,” says Sanghi. “Other measures being promoted don’t show progressive rewards from each of the steps needed to improve efficiency. Energy Logic was the first framework to highlight the ‘cascade effect’ of savings from one step to the next, but until now we didn’t have any way to quantify the reward from each step, in monetary terms or otherwise.”

Specifically, the new Energy Logic white paper introduces the concept of CUPS, or Compute Units per Second, to demonstrate how a metric can work. CUPS is a relative measure of server output, based on average server performance. Using data from multiple industry sources, Emerson Network Power calculated the change in CUPS between 2002 and 2007, providing a common server performance measure required to calculate efficiency. Data center professionals can experiment with CUPS relative to their own data center in an online efficiency calculator available at www.efficientdatacenters.com.

CUPS uncovers an important fact – while data center energy consumption has risen in recent years, these increases have been accompanied by dramatic gains in output and efficiency. If data center output had remained flat between 2002 and 2007, the efficiency improvements achieved would have cut 2007 data center consumption to one-eighth the 2002 consumption.

The analysis also helps data center managers prioritise energy efficiency decisions. Using the CUPS metric, the report shows that the 10 prioritised strategies proposed in the original Energy Logic white paper increase data center efficiency by 3.6 times. The measurement also pinpoints three strategies with the most impact – faster replacement of IT technologies, virtualisation and high-density architecture.

“Our goal with Energy Logic and the CUPS metric is to focus attention on the importance of the various steps that need to be taken to achieve optimal efficiency in the data center,” says Sanghi.

“Take the analogy of a diet, for example. The goal of a diet is to lose weight. By using ‘calories’ as a universally accepted measure, we can demonstrate the merit of each step of a diet – such as exercise, healthy eating and rest – by the amount of calories burned. The reward for the effort – or the ROI – is the weight loss. Using CUPS as our ‘calories’, we can now quantify how much each step of the Energy Logic framework contributes to the overall efficiency of the data center, but in real financial and environmental terms.

“Ultimately, a universal metric will help data center professionals make significant improvements in energy efficiency while meeting growing performance demands.”

To promote industry discussion and debate toward development of an agreed-upon approach, the extended Energy Logic framework offers three criteria that an efficiency metric should meet: it should drive the right behavior; be available and published at the IT device level to help buyers make the right choice; and be scalable from the IT device to the data center level.

“We need to emphasise how the investment in energy efficient data center solutions and design methodologies is rewarded with ongoing operational savings, otherwise that investment won’t be made, particularly in a difficult economic climate,” says Sanghi. “A measurable ROI based on a universally quantifiable metric can only encourage investment and further the goal of energy efficiency in the data center.”

For more information, visit www.efficientdatacenters.com, a new website developed by Emerson Network Power that showcases the latest advances in energy efficiency for data center professionals.