Power Management
Which describes PUE, a metric of data center power efficiency?
- APerformance per CPU; larger is better
- BA measure of data center floor area
- CTotal facility power divided by IT equipment power; the closer to 1, the less is wasted on cooling and the like
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Total facility power divided by IT equipment power; the closer to 1, the less is wasted on cooling and the like
PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) is total data center power divided by the power used by servers, storage and network equipment. It grows with power spent on cooling, power conversion losses, lighting and so on. A PUE of 1.5, for example, means half of the IT power again goes to cooling and overhead. Some facilities achieve about 1.1 with efficient cooling using outside air or liquid.
- A. It is not a performance metric.
- B. It is not an area metric.
- C. Correct. The ideal is 1.0.