CiRBA Inc., a leader in Data Center Intelligence (DCI) software, today announced an integration to help organizations manage server power efficiency in the data center. CiRBA and Intel have worked together to integrate Intel’s Data Center Manager (Intel DCM), a power and thermal monitoring and management solution for servers, racks and equipment such as power distribution units (PDUs). Power consumption data can now be collected by CiRBA to be included in its virtualization and cloud efficiency analytics. This offers organizations a powerful tool to more accurately factor power into data center transformation, ongoing workload placement and efficiency management decisions. Rather than rough estimation, these capabilities ensure accuracy and lower risk decisions through inclusion of actual power consumption data.   

Many companies are facing data center power constraints. In the past, organizations were unable to accurately assess the true power consumption of individual servers, instead relying either on the plated power listings or using points of peak power as a reference. This practice has led to inaccuracy and under- or over-estimation of power requirements. The goal of the Intel/CiRBA initiative is to provide customers with a way to utilize actual time series server power to more effectively place workloads and manage power consumption across the data center.

Power data added to the other constraints that CiRBA includes in its analytics (configurations, policy and many capacity related measures) enables organizations to place workloads that are optimally efficient, policy compliant and in line with power constraints or goals.

Virtualization and cloud computing have further complicated many aspects of power management. Many organizations have had to resort to host level power estimates while contemplating how to allocate costs and resources by virtual machine or internal cloud instance. CiRBA analytics combined with Intel® DCM power data enables a view of consumption by Virtual Machine, giving far more accurate and empirical answers that enable better decisions on workload placement and cross charging.

Applied across hundreds or thousands of servers across an enterprise, this can have a significant effect on an organization’s bottom line. In addition, actual power consumption data is a particularly useful feed into cross-charging systems and processes to ensure that costs are accurately allocated across business groups.

“If you can’t accurately measure power consumption, you can’t manage it,” said Chuck Tatham, SVP operations & business development, CiRBA. “What CiRBA is doing with Intel helps enable companies to truly understand how much power their servers are using, and then make informed decisions on how to manage server workloads and facilities in order to maximize the efficiency within their data center.”

“Intel® Data Center Manager data combined with CiRBA’s advanced analytics helps customers make better use of their Intel server investment while ensuring maximum performance and power efficiency,” said Jeff Klaus, director of data center solutions for Intel’s Software and Services Division. “Proactive and holistic management of virtualization and internal cloud infrastructure requires more precise measurement and management which includes power consumption as a critical element.”

A list of servers that support these capabilities can be found at: http://software.intel.com/sites/datacentermanager/supported-devices.php.