Future Facilities, Inc. (San Jose, CA), a provider of data center design and operational management software, has announced the launch of its ACE Data Center Performance Assessment Service, an offering designed to assess and visualize three critical indicators of data center performance: availability, capacity and efficiency.
Every data center faces roadmap changes, contends the company. Each change has the potential to chip away at one or more of these interconnected performance indicators. “We developed ACE as a new way to assess and visualize the performance state of the data center and to help the operator get to where they need to go to close the ‘performance gap,’” comments Sherman Ikemoto, director of Future Facilities, Inc. "Successful data center operation is about winning the battle against change by planning changes from a known performance baseline."
The ACE Assessment service starts with the creation of a Predictive Model (Virtual Facility) of the data center using Future Facilities' 6SigmaDC software. The Virtual Facility is then used to calculate the following performance indicators, as defined thusly:
-- Availability: % of existing connected IT load that will always be available under what if power and cooling failure conditions.
-- Capacity: % of the design IT load that can be achieved by adding to the present day layout.
-- Efficiency: The effectiveness of airflow and temperature delivery (compared to ASHRAE standards).
See also: Emerson advises on data center management best practices
Future Facilities asserts that ACE is the only service available that allows operators to visually plot their ‘performance gap’ -- i.e. the difference between maximum design potential and real-world operational potential. The ACE Service also pinpoints potential improvements to close performance gaps.
This past October, Future Facilities announced Release 8 of its 6SigmaDC software, giving users enhanced connectivity to third-party live data sources (such as sensors, servers, PDUs, ACUs), and the ability to incorporate predictive modeling into their DCIM workflows. In 2011, using the tools of the ACE Assessment Service, Future Facilities says it was able to help a global investment bank increase availability to 100%, reclaim 350Kw of lost capacity, and realize a 15% drop in PUE.
For more information, visit www.futurefacilities.com/ACE.
