The business case for Smart Energy is still in the making

Smart Energy is getting a lot of airplay in the data center world at present. New or planned products that fall under this broad banner include Energy-as-a-Service uninterruptible power supplies, software-defined power systems, and adaptable redundant systems that enable operators to raise or reduce their level of redundancy according to business needs. It might be argued that some long-established products, such as power capping/management, fall under this banner.

All of these products share a common characteristic. A software control system sits above the hard-wired power switching or power controls in a data center — or between the data center and the utility — and adjusts, in real or near-real time, the demand for and availability of power according to a set of policies. Depending on the infrastructure and systems in place, the power can be controlled by availability, by directional flow, by demand, or even by frequency or voltage.