The strong case for power management

In a recent report on server energy efficiency, Uptime Intelligence’s Dr. Tomas Rahkonen analyzed data from 429 servers and identified five key insights (see Server energy efficiency: five key insights). All were valuable observations for better managing (and reducing) IT power consumption, but one area of his analysis stood out: the efficiency benefits of IT power management.

IT power management holds a strange position in modern IT. The technology is mature, well understood, clearly explained by vendors, and is known to reduce IT energy consumption effectively at certain points of load. Many guidelines (including the 2022 Best Practice Guidelines for the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency and Uptime Institute’s sustainability series Digital infrastructure sustainability — a manager’s guide) strongly advocate for its use. And yet very few operators use it.