Power and Cooling Capacit y Management For Data Centers: White Paper #150

Power and Cooling
Capacity Management
for Data Centers
By Neil Rasmussen
White Paper #150

Executive Summary
High density IT equipment stresses the power density capability of modern data centers.
Installation and unmanaged proliferation of this equipment can lead to unexpected
problems with power and cooling infrastructure including overheating, overloads, and loss
of redundancy. The ability to measure and predict power and cooling capability at the rack
enclosure level is required to ensure predictable performance and optimize use of the
physical infrastructure resource. This paper describes the principles for achieving power
and cooling capacity management.
©2007 American Power Conversion. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, photocopied, transmitted, or 2
stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright owner. www.apc.com WP #150 Rev 0
Introduction
According to Gartner Inc., most data center operators are unaware of the loading and current power and
cooling capability of their data centers, even at a total bulk level. Installing equipment that exceeds the
design density of the data center, and the resultant stresses on the power and cooling systems, are causing
downtime from overloads, overheating, and loss of redundancy.
CAPACITY MANAGEMENT
The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) defines capacity management ITIL Definition
as the discipline that ensures infrastructure is provided at the right
time in the right volume at the right price, and that it is used in the Providing infrastructure...
most efficient manner. The critical success factors are:
At the RI
RIGHT TIME
In the RI
RIGHT AMOUNT
At the RIGHT PRICE
• Providing accurate capacity forecasts AND Æ USED EFFICIENTLY
• Providing appropriate capacity to meet business needs
This involves input from many areas of the business to identify what IT systems are (or will be) required,
what power and cooling infrastructure is required to support these IT loads, what level of contingency will be
needed, and what the cost of this infrastructure will be.
This paper applies the ITIL view of capacity management specifically to the problem of power, cooling, and
space capacity of data centers. A model is described for the quantification of power and cooling supply,
demand, and the different types of capacity that must be managed. This model can serve as a framework
for describing a capacity management system, or for establishing service level management guidelines.
Figure 1 – Capacity management is an ITIL service process
Incident Service Level

Management Management
Availability IT Service
Problem Community
Management Management
Management
Change IT Financial
Management Capacity Management
Management
Release
Management
ITIL Service Delivery processes
Focused on business owners
ITIL Service Support processes Configuration
Management
Focused on end users
Background
The ability to establish the power and cooling capability at a specific rack is extremely rare. Data center
operators typically do not have the information they need to effectively deploy new equipment at the rate
required by the business, and are unable to answer simple questions such as:
• Where in my data center should I deploy the next server so I don’t impact the availability of existing
equipment?
• From a power and cooling availability standpoint, where is the best location to deploy the proposed
IT equipment?
• Will I be able to install new equipment without negatively impacting my safety margins such as
redundancy and backup runtime?
• Will I still have power or cooling redundancy under fault or maintenance conditions?
• Can I deploy new hardware technology, such as blade servers, using my existing power and cooling
infrastructure?
• Do I need to spread out my blade servers to get reliable operation?

• When will I reach the limits of my current power and cooling infrastructure and require additional
capacity?
The inability to answer these simple questions is common but unacceptable. For data centers which are
grossly over-designed or under-utilized, the safety margins can allow successful operation with only a
primitive understanding of overall system performance. The compromise in availability due to this lack of
knowledge may result in a small but tolerable amount of downtime. While not the most economically efficient,
in the short term oversizing provides a safety margin until such a time as the available capacity equals
capacity utilized. However, three factors are currently placing stresses on data centers which are in turn
exposing the inadequacies of current operating methods:
• Ultra high density IT equipment

• The requirement to control total cost of ownership (TCO) and more fully utilize data centers
• The rapid change and refresh of IT equipment
Each of these factors leads to pressure to operate data centers in a more predictable manner.
High-density IT equipment
IT equipment drawing more than 10 kW per rack enclosure can Data center stress #1
High-density IT equipment
be considered high density. Fully populated racks of servers can
draw from 6 kW to 35 kW per rack. Yet the vast majority of data Overloads
Overheating
centers today are designed for a power density of less than 2 kW Loss of redundancy
per rack. As mentioned earlier, more and more users are
installing equipment that exceeds the design density of their data centers and the resultant stresses on the
power and cooling systems can cause downtime from overloads, overheating, and loss of redundancy. Data
center operators need better information regarding how and where to reliably deploy this equipment in both
existing and new data centers.
Total cost of ownership

Most businesses cannot accept gross over-design or oversizing of data centers. The waste of capital and
operating costs is significant. It is estimated that the typical data center today could hold up to 30% more IT
equipment using the same facility power and cooling capacity if the
Data center stress #2
capacity was properly managed. The typical data center today is not able
TCO pressure
to fully utilize its available power and cooling capacity, which reduces the
system efficiency and drives up electrical power consumption by 20% or Unused capacity
Reduced efficiency
more when compared to a system where the capacity is properly managed. Unseen waste
Capacity management tools can better utilize power and cooling resources
and reduce electrical consumption.
Rapid pace of change

IT equipment in a typical data center is constantly changing. Equipment refresh cycles are typically below
three years and equipment is constantly being added or removed on a daily basis. Furthermore, the power
and cooling requirements of the IT devices themselves are not constant but vary minute-by-minute as a
result of power management features implemented by IT equipment vendors. The historic “try it and see if it
works” method of deploying IT equipment is no longer viable, with Data center stress #3
overheating a common result. Capacity management tools must Rapid change
provide both real time and planning capabilities to address these 3-year refresh cycle
challenges, and they must provide this capability in a cost Day-to-day equipment changes
Minute-by-minute load changes
effective, easy-to-install, easy-to-use, pre-engineered form.
Capacity Supply and Demand

To provide simple answers to the basic questions users have about capacity, a systematic approach to
capacity management is required. The foundation of capacity management is the ability to quantify the
supply and the demand for both power and cooling.
While having power and cooling supply and demand information at the room or facility level helps, it does not
provide sufficiently detailed information to answer the questions about specific IT equipment deployments.
On the other hand, providing power and cooling supply and demand information at the IT device level is
unnecessarily detailed and intractable. An effective and practical level at which to measure and budget
power and cooling capacity is at the rack level, and this paper utilizes that approach (Figure 2).
Figure 2 – Level of control for capacity management
ROOM (top view)
Rack
Rack
Rack
Rack
Rack
Rack
Row Row Row Row
ROOM level DEVICE level RACK level

Best for
Too broad Too specific capacity management
The model described in this paper quantifies power and cooling supply and demand at the rack level in four
important ways:
• As-configured maximum potential demand

• Current actual demand
• As-configured potential supply
• Current actual supply
This information allows a complete description of the current status of a data center power and cooling at the
rack level.
The as-configured power and cooling maximum POTENTIAL DEMAND

The power management systems in modern servers can cause the power to vary by 2 to 1 or more during
typical operation. The maximum “as configured” power and cooling demand represents the peak values that
can be caused by this variance in the rack. This information can be established at the time of system
configuration via trending, it may be reported directly by the IT equipment, or it may be derived by other
means.
The maximum power and cooling demand is always greater than or equal to the actual power and cooling
demand and is critical information for capacity management.
The current power and cooling ACTUAL DEMAND

This is the value of power consumed and heat generated at each rack at any given point in time. Ideally, this
is done by real-time measurement of electrical power consumption at the rack level. For virtually all devices,
power consumed in watts equals the heat generated in watts. For other devices – including uninterruptible
power systems (UPS), power distribution units (PDU), air conditioners, and VoIP routers – the heat output in
watts is not equal to the power consumed, but can be mathematically derived. Rack power consumption can
be measured by the power distribution system or it can be measured by the IT equipment itself, and the
reported power consumed by the set of IT devices within a rack can be summed to obtain the rack power.
The as-configured power and cooling maximum POTENTIAL SUPPLY

The as-configured power and cooling supply is defined as the amount of power and cooling that could
potentially be delivered to the rack level by the installed infrastructure equipment. The potential power and
cooling supply will always be greater than or equal to the actual power and cooling supply. If the potential
supply is greater than the actual supply, this indicates that the system is in a degraded state. This can be
caused by a number of factors, such as:
• Blocked air filters in the cooling system

• A decrease in outdoor heat rejection capability due to extreme environmental conditions (
• The loss of a power module in a modular UPS
It is an important function of a capacity management system to recognize when the current actual supply is
not the same as the design value, and to diagnose the source of the constraints of the system that are
preventing realization of the design supply capacity.
The current power and cooling ACTUAL SUPPLY

The actual power and cooling supply at a rack is determined using information about the power and cooling
distribution architecture of the data center power and cooling system, the actual current capacities of the
bulk powering and cooling sources, and the effects on the available capacity of other loads.
The actual power supply at a given rack is determined by knowing the available branch circuit capacity to the
rack, constrained by the availability of unutilized power of upstream sources such as PDUs and UPS. In
some cases, the available capacity is further constrained by the design or configuration of the power system.
For example, a modular system might not be fully populated or the design may call for dual power feeds.
Determining the actual cooling supply at a rack is typically more complex than determining the power supply,
and is highly dependent on the air distribution architecture. Unlike the power architecture, where the flow of
power is constrained by wires, airflow is typically delivered to an approximate group of racks, where it
spreads among the racks based on the draw of the fans in the IT equipment. This makes the computation of
available air capacity more complex and sophisticated computer models are required. In cases where the
supply or return air are directly ducted to racks, the cooling supply at a rack is better defined and therefore
can be computed with improved accuracy.
Figure 3 – Quantifying demand and supply at the rack level
Levels shown represent

the general concept, not
Design max Design max
actual levels
Over-sizing
Design max Design max Some of this difference may
This difference represents
unused computing capacity represent infrastructure
in the rack problems that can be fixed
Actual Actual Actual Actual (typically worse for
With virtualization, the rack’s COOLING)
actual will rise and fall as loads
shift from rack to rack
Power and cooling DEMAND

is typically the same – kW
of power IN produces the
same kW of heat OUT
from rack provided by

equipment infrastructure
• Reduce TCO
Use CAPACITY MANAGEMENT data to
• Increase efficiency
OPTIMIZE
On the SUPPLY side, reduce the gap between actual and design max – i.e., get the best
to-the-rack delivery from installed power/cooling infrastructure
RIGHT-SIZE
Reduce the gap between design max SUPPLY and design max DEMAND – i.e., match
power/cooling to load, to increase efficiency and reduce waste
System-level Capacities
The demand on power and cooling is established at the rack. The supply, as described in the previous
section, must also be understood and quantified at the rack. However, the power and cooling supply system
is not established rack-by-rack but is hierarchical, with supply devices such as UPSs, PDUs, and air
conditioners supplying groups of racks. Bulk supply devices such as the power service entrance and cooling
towers also represent sources of capacity supply that must be sufficient for the demand. Therefore, in
addition to quantifying power and cooling supply capacity at the rack, it must also be quantified at the
aggregate levels aligned with the supply devices.
Figure 4 – Source of demand vs source of supply
Cooling
tower
Service
entrance
Bulk infrastructure
supplies the ROOM
Chiller
plant
In-row infrastructure supplies

a GROUP OF RACKS
is provided by a system-wide
hierarchy of infrastructure
originates at the RACK
Supply must always be greater than or equal to demand to prevent the data center from experiencing a
failure. This must be true at each rack, and it must also be true for each supply device supplying groups of
racks. Therefore, at any given time, there is always excess capacity. Excess capacity comes in four different
forms for purposes of capacity management, which are:
• Spare capacity
• Idle capacity
• Safety margin capacity
• Stranded capacity
Each of these types of excess capacity is explained in the following sections.
Spare capacity
Spare capacity is the current actual excess capacity that can be utilized "right now” for new IT equipment.
Carrying spare capacity has significant capital and operating costs related to the purchase and maintenance
of the power and cooling equipment. Furthermore, spare capacity always brings down the operating
efficiency of a data center and increases its electrical consumption.
In an effective capacity management architecture for a growing and changing data center, certain types of
spare capacity, such as spare utility connection capacity, are cost effective. However, power and cooling
equipment should ideally be installed only when and where needed to meet growing demand.
An effective capacity management system must comprehend and quantify growth plans. For more
information on quantifying growth plans see APC White Paper #143, “Data Center Projects: Growth Model.”
Idle capacity
Idle capacity is the current actual excess capacity that is held available to meet the as-configured maximum
potential power or cooling demand. The existing IT equipment might need this capacity under peak load
conditions, so this idle capacity cannot be used to supply new IT equipment deployments.
Idle capacity is a growing problem caused by power management functions within IT equipment. The idle
capacity must be maintained for the times when power-managed IT equipment switches to high power
modes.
Safety margin capacity

Safety margin capacity is planned excess capacity that is held available above and beyond the as-configured
maximum potential power or cooling demand. Providing a safety margin allows system operation in the event
of small errors in setting the maximum potential power and cooling demand, or in the event of some
unauthorized IT equipment being added to the system. Safety margins in the range of 10% to 20% are
typical, with up to 30% or more used in data centers with weak change control procedures. This represents
capacity that cannot be used for IT deployments.
Stranded capacity
Stranded capacity is capacity that cannot be utilized by IT loads due to the design or configuration of the
system. The presence of stranded capacity indicates an imbalance between two or more of the following
capacities:
• Floor and rack space

• Power
• Power distribution
• Cooling
• Cooling distribution
A specific IT device requires sufficient capacity of all of the five above elements. Yet these elements are
almost never available in an exact balance of capacity to match a specific IT load. Invariably, there are
locations with rack space but without available cooling, or spaces with available power but with no available
rack space. Capacity of one type that cannot be used because one of the other four capacities listed above
has been used to its maximum capacity is called stranded capacity. Stranded capacity is undesirable and
can seriously limit the performance of a data center. Unfortunately, most data centers have significant
stranded capacity issues, including the following common examples:
• An air conditioner has sufficient capacity but inadequate air distribution to the IT load
• A PDU has sufficient capacity but no available breaker positions
• Floor space is available but there is no remaining power
• Air conditioners are in the wrong location
• Some PDUs are overloaded while others are lightly loaded
• Some areas are overheated while others are cold
Depending on the situation and the architecture of the power and cooling system, it might be impossible to
utilize stranded capacity or it might be that only minor investments are needed to free stranded capacity so
that it can be effectively used. By definition, utilizing stranded capacity comes at a cost. It is often necessary
to take down part of the installation or install new power and cooling components.
Stranded capacity is a very frustrating capacity management problem for data center operators because it is
very hard to explain to users or management that a data center with 1 MW of installed power and cooling
capacity can’t cool the new blade servers when it is only operating at 200 kW of total load.
An effective capacity management system not only identifies and highlights stranded capacity, but also helps
customers avoid creating it in the first place.
Figure 5 – Types of excess capacity

● Held in reserve above the as-configured
maximum demand
● Insurance against errors in calculation of as-
configured maximum demand
Off limits SAFETY ● Insurance against unauthorized IT equipment
to intentional use
MARGIN being added to system
● 10-20% is typical, 30% if weak change control
Available
for use by new IT SPARE ● Capacity management can reduce the need for
equipment capacity
the SAFETY MARGIN and recover it to become
SPARE capacity for additional IT deployments
Unavailable
(by mistake) STRANDED
capacity
●Significant capital and operating cost to carry it
On standby
for peak loading of ● Brings down overall data center efficiency
existing IT equipment
IDLE
capacity ● Increases electric bill
● Unusable because of system design flaws

● Caused by imbalance of the three capacities
(power, cooling, rack space) at a location – enough
In use right now of one or two, but not all three
supporting IT equipment
● Capacity management can identify or prevent
stranded capacity
ACTIVE
capacity
● Capacity management can optimize use of IDLE
capacity – even turn some into SPARE capacity
Managing Capacity
The previous sections have established the framework for quantifying power and cooling supply and
demand. The ITIL framework specifies the functions which take place within the capacity management
process, including:
• Performance monitoring
• Workload monitoring
• Supply forecasting
• Demand forecasting
• Modeling
The above tools are to serve the ITIL-defined capacity management goals of providing accurate capacity
forecasts and providing appropriate capacity to meet business needs.
A power and cooling capacity management system based on measurement by technicians combined with
paper calculations could be envisioned, and in fact this method is used in crude form in some data centers.
However, with the advent of server virtualization and IT equipment that changes its own power and cooling
demand dynamically, the use of networked power and cooling instrumentation combined with power and
cooling capacity management software is the only practical and feasible solution. From a user’s perspective,
such a system would provide the following functionality:
• Presentation of capacity data

• Setting the capacity plan
• Alerting on violations of the capacity plan
• Modeling proposed changes
Presentation of capacity data

The current supply and demand conditions of the data center, including spare and stranded capacity and
other capacity attributes described earlier in this paper should be presented at three levels:
• Room level: The bulk level supply and demand as well as the various capacities for the entire room.
Typically focuses on facility level UPS, generator, chiller, cooling tower, and service entrance
equipment.
• Row level: Power and cooling supply and demand associated with a row or other logical zone within
the data center. Often associated with cooling or power distribution equipment that is row-oriented,
such as PDUs, or row-oriented cooling systems. Particularly valuable for planning purposes when
rack-level details about configuration of specific racks are not yet known.
• Rack level: Power and cooling supply and demand associated with a specific rack or cabinet.
Information at this level is required to diagnose problems or to assess the impact of specific IT
device deployments. May be associated with rack level distribution circuits or rack-oriented cooling
systems.
An effective capacity management system will provide a display of the above types of information in a
hierarchical drill-down model, including a graphical representation of the layout of the data center. Figure 6
illustrates the room-level view and Figure 7 illustrates the rack-level view.
Figure 6 – Example data center layout using APC Capacity Manager
View accurate
representation of
Ability to drill in to
data center floor
row or rack level
layout
(as in Figure 7)
Visibility to average
and peak power
usage by measuring
actual consumption
Figure 7 – Example rack level view using APC Capacity Manager
Create work orders

and automatically
generate tasks to
carry out adds,
moves and
removes of IT
equipment
Quickly locate the

optimum spot for
that next server
based on space,
cooling, and power
needs
Setting the capacity plan

A capacity plan must be established during the design of the data center. Once the power and cooling
devices are installed in the data center, they constrain and in many ways “become” the supply side of the
capacity plan. With today’s scalable data center power and cooling solutions, it is possible to have a capacity
plan that can adapt to IT growth plans in order to optimize capacity expense and electrical efficiency.
ITIL specifically focuses on the issue of not just ensuring sufficient capacity, but ensuring appropriate
capacity. Too often the focus is on assuring sufficient capacity without regard for right-sizing to the actual IT
needs. The common result is oversizing with the associated waste of capital expenditures, energy, service
contracts, and water consumption.
Data center design tools help establish capacity plans and therefore should integrate into the capacity
management system. An example of such a suite of software tools is the APC InfraStruXure Designer data
center design tool, the APC InfraStruXure Central management platform, and the APC Capacity Manager.
Alerting on violations of the capacity plan
Capacity related alerts should be triggered when actual conditions are outside the boundaries of the capacity
management plan. These warnings can take the form of local, visual, or audible alerts, or can escalate via
the management system as pages, e-mails, etc.
Capacity alarms are generated in response to events such as:
• Increase of power consumption of installed equipment in a rack beyond the peak specified in the
capacity management plan for a rack, a row, or the room
• Reduction in available cooling or power capacity at the row, rack, or room level due to loss or
degradation of a power or cooling sub-system
• Cooling or power systems entering a state where they are not able to provide the redundancy
specified in the capacity management plan
For many of these events, no actual hardware fault has occurred and hence no events would be triggered by
traditional monitoring systems. In fact, most alerts provided by a capacity management system are predictive
in nature. Note that in an actual data center, the capacity management system complements other
monitoring tools such as real time fault, security, water leak, and temperature monitoring. An example of a
monitoring system that provides both real time alerts as well as capacity management alerts is the APC
InfraStruXure Central (Figure 8).
Figure 8 – APC InfraStruXure Central as an example of a centralized monitoring system
Real-time device monitoring

including advanced security
and instant event notification
enable quick assessment and
resolution of critical situations.
Modeling proposed changes
In addition to the determination of current conditions, an effective capacity management system must
provide the ability to analyze the capacity in historical and hypothetical situations. These scenarios may
include:
• Simulating fault conditions, such as loss of one or more power or cooling devices
• Analyzing plan growth versus actual capacity usage
• Proposals of equipment adds, removes, and relocations
• Trending based on historic data
The capacity management system should allow these scenarios to be evaluated against the current capacity
management plan. An effective model would guide the user to select the best scenario from options, for
example to maximize electrical efficiency or minimize floor space consumption.
Monitoring Power and Cooling for IT Devices

For most purposes, a rack may be viewed as a black box consuming power without awareness of the
quantity, type, or location of the IT devices in the rack. The capacity management system as described is
only weakly dependent on device-specific information, as long as the power consumed at the rack level can
be directly specified or measured. When the power consumption is known, the cooling requirements can be
estimated with high accuracy. When these rack level values are inside the boundaries of the capacity plan,
no additional information is needed to ensure that the power and cooling systems can meet the demand.
Therefore, with the right tools, capacity management offers many advantages to IT operations without the
requirement of detailed inventory management of the IT devices. However, there are advantages to having
information about the IT devices in the rack, or directly communicating with the IT devices. These
advantages include:
• Awareness of power consumption characteristics of individual IT components

• Awareness of minimum and maximum time-varying power characteristics of the devices
• Awareness of unusual airflow requirements, or other unusual fan operating modes
• U-space utilization at the rack level (space capacity)
• Ability to give accurate assessments of the effects associated with adds, removes, or changes
To effectively utilize knowledge gained from detailed inventory management, the data must be understood
by a capacity management system.
In general, most small to medium data centers do not have the process maturity and staffing needed to
maintain rack-related IT equipment installation inventories and change history. Therefore, a capacity
management system cannot depend on the presence of this information, but should be able to take
advantage of it when available. As organizations mature, they can migrate from simplified capacity
management to a more detailed solution that incorporates change and inventory management. The
interaction between change management and capacity management is bi-directional as change
management is highly dependent on capacity management information to predict the impact of proposed
changes.
Figure 9 – Summary of a robust capacity management system
Process
Performance monitoring Set capacity plan
Workload monitoring
Present capacity data
Monitor infrastructure Supply forecasting
Demand forecasting Alert on violations of capacity plan
Monitor IT workload
Modeling Model proposed changes
HARDWARE Interface USER Interface

Goals
Provide accurate Provide

CAPACITY FORECASTS APPROPRIATE CAPACITY
to meet business needs
Conclusion
Capacity management is an essential part of the efficient planning and operation of data centers. The need
for capacity management grows with the density, size, and complexity of the data center. A methodology for
capacity management has been described. It has been shown that capacity management is not dependant
on detailed information about the IT devices at the rack level and requires less effort to implement and
maintain, compared to traditional detailed inventory management systems, while still providing most of the
key benefits. If capacity management is implemented as described in this white paper, it can provide critical
information about the state of the data center which is not provided by traditional monitoring systems.
About the Author:
Neil Rasmussen is the Senior VP of Innovation for APC, which is the IT Business Unit of Schneider Electric.
He establishes the technology direction for the world’s largest R&D budget devoted to power, cooling, and
rack infrastructure for critical networks.
Neil holds 14 patents related to high-efficiency and high-density data center power and cooling infra-
structure, and has published over 50 white papers related to power and cooling systems, many published in
more than 10 languages, most recently with a focus on the improvement of energy efficiency. He is an
internationally recognized key-note speaker on the subject of high efficiency data centers. Neil is currently
working to advance the science of high-efficiency, high-density, scalable data center infrastructure solutions
and is a principal architect of the APC InfraStruXure system.
Prior to founding APC in 1981, Neil received his bachelors and masters degrees from MIT in electrical
engineering, where he did his thesis on the analysis of a 200MW power supply for a tokamak fusion reactor.
From 1979 to 1981 he worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratories on flywheel energy storage systems and solar
electric power systems.

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Power and Cooling

White Paper #150

Installation and unmanaged proliferation of this equipment can lead to unexpected

and cooling capacity management.

Figure 1 – Capacity management is an ITIL service process

Incident Service Level

• Do I need to spread out my blade servers to get reliable operation?

• Ultra high density IT equipment

Total cost of ownership

Rapid pace of change

Capacity Supply and Demand

ROOM (top view)

Row Row Row Row

ROOM level DEVICE level RACK level

• As-configured maximum potential demand

The as-configured power and cooling maximum POTENTIAL DEMAND

The current power and cooling ACTUAL DEMAND

The as-configured power and cooling maximum POTENTIAL SUPPLY

• Blocked air filters in the cooling system

The current power and cooling ACTUAL SUPPLY

Levels shown represent

Power and cooling DEMAND

from rack provided by

In-row infrastructure supplies

Safety margin capacity

• Floor and rack space

Figure 5 – Types of excess capacity

● Unusable because of system design flaws

• Presentation of capacity data

Presentation of capacity data

Figure 6 – Example data center layout using APC Capacity Manager

Create work orders

Quickly locate the

Setting the capacity plan

Capacity alarms are generated in response to events such as:

Figure 8 – APC InfraStruXure Central as an example of a centralized monitoring system

Real-time device monitoring

Monitoring Power and Cooling for IT Devices

• Awareness of power consumption characteristics of individual IT components

Figure 9 – Summary of a robust capacity management system

HARDWARE Interface USER Interface

Provide accurate Provide

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