Charging for Data Center power based on individual consumption

Power consumption charges in the Data Center

A large Australian based Bank has its customers co-lo their IT equipment within their banking data center. They allow up to three companies to share a single 42U rack. They were charging customers, other financial institutions, for rack space, but they also wanted a way to charge for power based on a customer's individual power consumption. They were seeking the ability to measure their power, store the data, and create reports that could be used for determining who was using what power.

After a consultation with a Server Technology Regional Sales Manager, the institution found a solution in the form of two Server Technology products: an intelligent Power Distribution Unit (PDU) and the Sentry Power Manager (SPM) software application.

The PDU selected was a Smart CS-12HDE-30932E. This horizontal (2U) dual-corded unit delivers reliable 230V at 32 Amps and comes with (12) IEC C19 outlets, meeting that region's power specifications. This Smart product provides local power monitoring via its six onboard LEDs (one per branch) and network power monitoring via its built in firmware. Environmental conditions, temperature and humidity, can also be measured with the optional 10ft temperature and humidity probes. The power and environmental monitoring on the PDU can be accessed either via a local serial connection or via IP. From the web interface, a user can configure SNMP traps and alarms based on user defined power and environmental thresholds.

Sentry Power Manager (SPM) was also deployed as part of the solution. SPM is a software appliance that gives the user a central interface to access thousands of networked sentry power distribution units anywhere in the world. It includes a global view of all PDUs and the ability to view devices based on temperature, humidity, current and device status. SPM is specifically intended to continuously poll hundreds of PDUs, anywhere in the world, and store the accumulated data. This, in turn, can be used to generate various power and environmental conditions reports, provide kW and kW-hour information for billing, power monitoring, trending and other power reports.

With the bank splitting rack space amongst up to three customers, the CS-12HDE worked perfectly. Each customer will be given four of the C19 outlets (two branches) on the CS-12HDE. Using SPM, the input power going to each branch can be measured and that data can then be stored. Reports and trends can then be generated thus giving them the ability to see which branches are consuming what amount of power. This allows them to bill their customers directly based on the accumulated data.

Knowing the power of each branch on the PDU also ensures the PDU is loaded without tripping, and it ensures proper load balancing so that if a primary infeed is lost, the backup infeed can support all the customers' devices.

This institution set out to bill back its customers for their power consumption and they have achieved this with one simple solution. They have also gained additional features and benefits along the way.