Combining energy saving techniques in data centres using model-based analysis

Advanced power management and cooling techniques for data centres often co-exist as separate entities in current-day operation of data centres. This paper proposes to combine these techniques to achieve greater power savings. To this end, an existing theoretical thermal-aware model is integrated in an extensive simulation framework for data centres using power and performance models, which allows for a detailed study in power, performance and thermal metrics. The paper compares four distinct cases for studying the effect on these metrics: a data centre with (i) basic functionality; (ii) advanced cooling; (iii) advanced power management; and (iv) a combination thereof. The combined case shows a significant reduction in the energy consumption compared to the other cases while performance and thermal demands are kept intact. The combination of these techniques shows improvements in energy savings and shows it is meaningful to investigate further into smart combined energy saving techniques.