Hewlett-Packard Puts a Power Cap on Servers

By Michael Kanellos

Think of Dynamic Power Capping from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) as a circuit breaker for the circuit breaker.

The company has devised a technology (embodied in software and hardware) that effectively prevents servers and other equipment from exceeding a pre-set electrical threshold and thus tripping the breakers. If a datacenter (or some portion of a large one) is only supposed to get 1,000 kilowatts of power, that’s all it will get.

Setting a finite limit on power consumption in turn allows datacenter managers to reduce their margin of error, explained Peter Gross, CEO of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, a company that designs datacenters. (Hewlett-Packard bought it and made EYP a subsidiary.) Now, if a couple of server rows need 500 kilowatts, an IT manager might provision 1,000 kilowatts to it in order to cushion against unforeseen spikes. As a result, a lot of power is going to waste.

With a cap, you can increase the number of servers in a room, reduce power consumption or some combination of the two. Datacenter managers, of course, can re-evaluate their power needs as time goes on. Dynamic Power Capping is part of HP’s Thermal Logic portfolio of energy efficiency technologies and services for datacenters, said Gottsegen.

HP estimates that the technology can save a company $16 million in a 1 megawatt datacenter in a year.

Other companies are working to reduce the power consumption of their products as well, notably IBM, Sun (JAVA), Dell (DELL), Yahoo (YHOO), Google (GOOG), Intel (INTC) and Seagate (STX). Starting in early 2006, IT managers began to loudly complain about their electrical bills: coming out with energy efficient servers and PCs in turn became one of the more popular ways to market a computer. Power bills have also help spur demand for thin clients. (See aesthetically intriguing video that will challenge your assumptions about modern cinema here.)

Some companies are considering building datacenters in Iceland because of the prevalence of geothermal power and free cool air, Gross told me. Air conditioning consumes about half the power going into datacenters.

“Datacenters will use more power than a small town with 20,000 to 30,000 households,” Gross said. “It is becoming the most glaring element of energy consumption in a corporation.”

A modern data center can cost $200 to $300 million to build and stock with power supplies and air conditioners.

Datacenters a few years ago consumed about 25 watts per square foot. Then in 2004 and 2005 the figure shot up to 52 watts per square foot. Blame it on multi-core chips and virtualization software. These increase computing utility but also increase the power density. The average server cabinet at a typical large company will consume 2 to 3 kilowatts. One at a search engine will gobble up 8.5 to 9 kilowatts.