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data center infrastructure efficiency (DCIE)

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- Data center infrastructure efficiency (DCIE) is a metric used to determine the energy efficiency of a data center. The metric, which is expressed as a percentage, is calculated by dividing IT equipment power by total facility power. DCIE was developed by members of the Green Grid, an industry group focused on data center energy efficiency.

How to Determine DCIE:

1. Take a measurement of energy use at or near the facility utility's meter. If the data center is in a mixed-use facility or office building, take a measurement only at the meter that is powering the data center. If the data center is not on a separate utility meter, estimate the amount of power being consumed by the non-data center portion of the building and remove it from the equation.

2. Measure the IT equipment load, which should be measured after power conversion, switching, and conditioning is completed. According to The Green Grid, the most likely measurement point would be at the output of the computer room power distribution units (PDUs). This measurement should represent the total power delivered to the server racks in the data center.

PUE, the reciprocal of DCIE, is calculated by dividing total facility power by IT equipment power. According to the Uptime Institute, the typical data center has an average PUE of 2.5. This means that for every 2.5 watts "in" at the utility meter, only one watt is delivered out to the IT load. Uptime estimates most facilities could achieve 1.6 PUE by using the most efficient equipment and best practices.

Learn more about Data center standards and metrics

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TIA-942: Cookie cutter or cost cutter?: The Telecommunications Industry Association recently published a standard that attempts to address almost every design consideration in the data center.
TPC-C benchmark gives way to OLTP successor: The Transaction Processing Performance Council has a new transaction performance benchmark that it says is more real-world.
Uptime Institute warns against tier standard misuse: The Uptime Institute Inc.'s tier classification for data center performance has become a de facto standard. But the misapplication of those standards can lead to ugly surprises.
Fast Guide: Data center metrics and standards: Implementing standards and metrics can help ensure that a data center is run smoothly.
Understanding green IT and data center energy-efficiency regulations: This tip outlines current and pending green IT and data center energy-efficiency regulations, how to ensure compliance and the penalties for ignoring the policies.
TPC-E: New IT benchmarks for OLTP database servers: The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) has released TPC Benchmark E (TPC-E) for online transaction processing (OLTP) database servers.
Ensuring CICS security with the Web Services Security standard: You can ensure CICS message security with the Web Services Security (WSS) standard, which provides digital signature, authentication and message handler procedures.
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CONTRIBUTORS:	Mark Fontecchio
LAST UPDATED:	08 May 2008

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More resources from around the web:

-	The Green Grid offers a downloadable white paper that explains PUE and DCIE further. (PDF)

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