Industry stakeholders and regulators in the datacentre industry are expected to update their energy efficient criteria to include assessments of IT equipment utilisation and work delivered per unit of energy consumed.
Traditionally, the industry has relied on Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to measure datacentre efficiency, but this metric does not account for the efficiency of the IT equipment itself. There is a growing recognition among operators and stakeholders that truly efficient datacentres must maximize the utilization of IT equipment while minimizing power demand.
Comments on the draft of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) Delegated Regulation in November 2023 highlighted the importance of reporting average utilisation of installed server and storage equipment to gauge performance and efficiency accurately.
Maximizing equipment utilisation and reducing energy use benefits datacentre operators economically. By consolidating existing workloads onto more efficient IT equipment, operators can reduce space, energy consumption, and capital expenditures.
Data from the Uptime Institute IT power and efficiency survey 2023 shows that operators who track server infrastructure utilization profiles and set performance goals achieve higher levels of server utilization.
While some operators may be hesitant to disclose their IT equipment utilisation due to perceived notions of operational resiliency or regulatory requirements, tools and processes are available to help operators improve utilization while maintaining operational reliability.
Setting aggressive utilisation goals for server infrastructure has shown significant improvements in efficiency and performance. Operators who set utilisation objectives and follow through with improvement plans operate more efficiently and sustainably, leading to cost savings and environmental benefits.
To drive improvements, operators are advised to start collecting and analyzing utilisation data and setting utilisation goals. Implementing a ‘refresh and consolidate’ strategy can help operators achieve their server utilisation goals by consolidating workloads onto new servers during the refresh process, resulting in savings in equipment, energy, and space. This approach benefits not only the operators but also stakeholders across the organization.