"Green" Efficiency Research, Evaluation & Support

Research and Evaluate Green Solutions

The DICE team conducts specialized research as well as actual testing and evaluation – real testing producing real results. From these studies, DICE produces reports and studies to support critical decisions and enhance knowledge for the high performance computing (HPC) and information technology (IT) communities, including the area of “green” efficiency.

As a test bed for emerging and innovative intensive data management products, the DICE test bed is an ideal solution for meeting the DOE interest in a community-wide independent evaluation source for energy performance.

The Situation

The confluence of at least three demands has resulted in a heightened look at what is being called “Green Information Technology (IT):”

Increased demand for data processing or workload demand,
Use of commodity clusters resulting in more computational power per square foot of data center with a resulting increase in power required and a increased sensitivity toward carbon footprint and
Global climate change.

With a push to reduce the carbon footprint and the unattended consequences in power growth required for operation of a major data center, there is a reassessment starting on how to continue the performance growth in computational power without the past growth in power requirements.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in their June 2009 Recovery Act: Energy Efficient Information and Communication Technology Funding Opportunity Announcement stated, “… independently evaluating the energy performance of emerging technologies that show the potential to improve energy efficiency…” is an important concern.

DICE Green Services

Service	Description
Power & Cooling Research Services	DICE has a partner relationship with the HPC group of IDC, and together this team conducts research and surveys to explore challenges, current solutions and trends for power and cooling efficiencies. This highly qualified team provides years of expertise in research focused on the HPC and IT communities. Latest Research: DICE, in conjunction with the HPC group of IDC, conducted a two-phase study on data center power and cooling issues, solutions and trends. The sample included HPC and commercial enterprise/telecommunication data centers and related vendors. Both studies revealed interesting information, but further progress is essential for the community as a whole as well as America. View and Download a printable PDF version.
Consulting and Support Services	The DICE team has a rich history in providing services to industry and government agencies. Our projects range from requirements development to full product testing and evaluation. Areas of “green efficiency” support that DICE can provide ranges from data center consulting and metrics development research to literature references.
Test & Evaluation of Green Technology	In a recent program undertaken by the DICE team to evaluate current and projected power and cooling requirements of HPC and enterprise data centers, it was discovered that the DICE test bed is an ideal environment for evaluating emerging power and cooling solutions. DICE has initiated a concerted endeavor to expand its test and evaluation services to include evaluations for improved efficiency solutions to address the impending tsunami that is coming in this aspect of running a data center. The DICE test bed is a realistic test environment with geographically dispersed test sites representative of HPC data centers connected through real-world existing networks. As a test bed for emerging and innovative intensive data management products, the DICE test bed is an ideal solution for meeting DOE’s interest in having an independent evaluation source for energy performance.

Service

Description

Power & Cooling Research Services

DICE has a partner relationship with the HPC group of IDC, and together this team conducts research and surveys to explore challenges, current solutions and trends for power and cooling efficiencies. This highly qualified team provides years of expertise in research focused on the HPC and IT communities.

Latest Research: DICE, in conjunction with the HPC group of IDC, conducted a two-phase study on data center power and cooling issues, solutions and trends. The sample included HPC and commercial enterprise/telecommunication data centers and related vendors. Both studies revealed interesting information, but further progress is essential for the community as a whole as well as America. View and Download a printable PDF version.

Consulting and Support Services

The DICE team has a rich history in providing services to industry and government agencies. Our projects range from requirements development to full product testing and evaluation. Areas of “green efficiency” support that DICE can provide ranges from data center consulting and metrics development research to literature references.

Test & Evaluation of Green Technology

In a recent program undertaken by the DICE team to evaluate current and projected power and cooling requirements of HPC and enterprise data centers, it was discovered that the DICE test bed is an ideal environment for evaluating emerging power and cooling solutions. DICE has initiated a concerted endeavor to expand its test and evaluation services to include evaluations for improved efficiency solutions to address the impending tsunami that is coming in this aspect of running a data center.

The DICE test bed is a realistic test environment with geographically dispersed test sites representative of HPC data centers connected through real-world existing networks. As a test bed for emerging and innovative intensive data management products, the DICE test bed is an ideal solution for meeting DOE’s interest in having an independent evaluation source for energy performance.