Data center energy demands are on the rise, creating serious financial as well as infrastructural challenges for data center operators. In 2006, data centers were responsible for a costly 1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption, and national energy consumption by data centers is expected to nearly double by 2011.¹ For data center operators, this means that many data centers are reaching the limits of power capacity for which they were originally designed. In fact, Gartner predicts that 50 percent of data centers will discover they have insufficient power and cooling capacity in 2008.²

Energy-efficient technologies and design strategies exist today to help ease power strains in data center upgrades and new builds. However, their effects greatly depend on the data center design team's ability to assess the entire IT and utility infrastructure system over a selected time period and employ a highly coordinated mix of technologies and strategies.

Lumina's Analytica Data Center Capacity Planning Tool (ADCAPT) helps data center operators plan for energy demands in upgrade projects and new builds by helping to:

• Determine the capacity needed to meet an uncertain but growing load
• Phase capacity deployment to be flexible for years to come
• Select the right combination of technologies to limit total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Prepare for upgrades to future innovations in energy-efficient technologies

Achieve total power savings

ADCAPT evaluates your data center's TCO by enabling a comprehensive vision of costs for selected configurations over a selected time period. Data center design teams can isolate and compare capital, operations, maintenance, staff, space, power, cooling, and other infrastructure costs for customized data center configurations including configurations that employ virtualization technology.

ADCAPT assesses server power and performance using the SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark standard for selected servers. To ensure that your data is up to date, ADCAPT dynamically refreshes the SPEC data from the web.

ADCAPT enables data center design teams to evaluate phased deployment strategies that incorporate future performance and efficiency upgrades as well as changes in the cost of electricity. By calculating the value and risks of retaining flexibility, ADCAPT allows data center design teams to explore possible futures and identify key assumptions and challenges before they threaten reliability.

Please call Lumina for a conversation about how ADCAPT can help you evaluate your data center options more comprehensively and comprehensibly.

For more information on ADCAPT you can download an overview brochure, call Lumina at 1-650-212-1212 or email us at kcmares@lumina.com.

¹Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Public Law 109-431, US EPA, ENERGY STAR program, August 2, 2007, pp. 10-11.

² Gartner Says 50 Percent of Data Centers Will Have Insufficient Power and Cooling Capacity by 2008, Gartner Inc. press release, November 29,2006