Pulling IT power data with software

Tracking individual server power consumption and resource utilization is critical for improving the performance, efficiency and sustainability of the data center. Average server utilization rates across the industry are estimated to be as low as 10% to 20%. Meanwhile a significant amount of IT power is wasted because servers are being over- or under-utilized, or just left idle (see This Halloween, beware the vampire server).

Capturing server power data is already a requirement in some jurisdictions: for example, operators in the EU are required to report total annual IT power consumption for facilities over a certain size as part of the updated Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). Identifying how and where IT power is being wasted also requires server utilization data, and future versions of the EED may require monitoring of IT utilization.