August 11, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – UK managed services provider Memset (http://www.memset.com/) has moved closer to addressing the costs of powering and cooling a data center, it was announced yesterday. The company has established an “on demand” model that charges for power consumption and bandwidth separately.
Memset is testing a system that automatically powers down servers in a managed cluster that are underused. The system then brings them online as load increases, providing a “burst capacity” available without wasting power at normal loads. Customers with managed clusters will only be charged for the power used, enabling Memset to pass on cost savings.
“Integrating a scaling up and down model, and thereby reducing power consumption when its not needed, is one way of addressing the increasing energy costs facing companies and overcoming London’s electricity restrictions,” explained Memset’s MD, Kate Craig-Wood.
Memset quotes a study published in 2006 that suggests average datacenter energy usage in the UK is about 5.3 million pounds ($10.7 million) per year with prices doubling every three years. “Currently, up to 1.5% of UK power goes towards powering servers, and most servers are underused - the average resource utilization is 10-15% (mainly due to over-provisioning of hardware to cope with spikes in demand),” added Ms. Kate Craig-Wood. “Whilst virtualization and other innovations can address server utilization, we knew something had to be done about our power consumption, especially in London where there is practically no power left, and its already being reserved for the 2012 Olympics.”
“Power is expensive, and getting more so, whilst at the same time we are under increasing pressure to reduce carbon footprints. Data centers are, for now, unnoticed but I have little doubt that we will have green protesters outside them in coming years,” she continued. “In conjunction with our commitment to virtualization, this core innovation not only moves Memset one step closer to offering true utility computing but will also increase the energy efficiency of our data centers.”
