Cooling Vendors Offer Energy Tools

If you're looking to improve the energy efficiency of your data center, the leading power and cooling vendors are here to help. Last week Emerson Network Power and APC each unveiled new tools to help customers address the efficiency of their facilities.

Emerson Network Power, which sells Liebert cooling and UPS products, introduced Energy Logic, a roadmap that provides data center with a prioritized approach to reducing energy consumption. Energy Logic centers on what it calls "the cascade effect," in which one watt saved at the processor level can save around 2.84 watts in energy consumption. Energy Logic quantifies savings and provides an estimated time to return on investment of each recommended action. The specific steps of Energy Logic are outlined in a new white paper on the Liebert web site.

"Our customers are telling us that efficiency is a top priority, yet at the same time, a difficult concept to measure," said Jack Pouchet, director of energy initiatives for Emerson Network Power. "Emerson Network Power is sharing its Energy Logic approach to help IT and data center managers prioritize their efforts and give them a place to start."

On Wednesday APC introduced the Energy Efficiency Quotient, an online tool to help IT professionals assess the efficiency of their data center. The tool provides a rating of an existing data center's current efficiency, along with recommended steps and access to related white papers. APC said the new offering is the first in a series of efficiency quotient tools it will introduce.

"APC's new Data Center Efficiency Quotient tool offers our customers and others a quick way to benchmark themselves on the energy efficiency of their data center in both a qualitative and quantitative way," said Carl Cottuli, vice president of APC's Data Center Science Center. "In addition to providing an overall efficiency score, the measurement tool offers peer results so companies can compare themselves to other companies in their industry. With a data center efficiency quotient score, users now have a fundamental understanding of where they are today, and what those next steps are toward becoming an Efficient Enterprise."