Dynamic Data Center Power Management: Trends, Issues, and Solutions

Overview

This paper examines the challenges of increasing data center power consumption and higher energy costs in the face of ever-increasing computing needs. An examination of how power is allocated to computing resources in data centers shows that current methods do not result in optimal use of available data center power and space. It paper identify requirements that server platforms must address to solve data center power problems, and it offers a solution that includes a platform resident Policy Manager (PM). The PM monitors power and thermal sensors and enforces platform power and thermal policies. The paper explains how the PM can be used as the basis of a data center power management solution.