Title: Applying green metrics to optimise the energy consumption footprint of IT service centres

Authors: Alexander Kipp; Tao Jiang; Jia Liu; Mariagrazia Fugini; Monica Vitali; Barbara Pernici; Ioan Salomie

Addresses: High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart, Nobelstr, 19, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany. ' High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart, Nobelstr, 19, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany. ' High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart, Nobelstr, 19, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany. ' Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy. ' Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy. ' Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy. ' Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 15 C Daicoviciu Str., 3400 Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach to characterise applications with respect to their energy consumption by using a set of energy-related metrics, called Green Metrics. These indicators are based on energy consumption measurements, such as indices of computing resource usage, of environmental impact, of development costs required to (re)design an application in order to optimise its energy consumption footprint, and of organisational factors related to application management. Our approach is framed in the Green Active Management of Energy in IT Service Centres (GAMES) EU project, with a particular focus on green IT. In this paper, we define Green Metrics enabling to characterise an application in terms of the energy it consumes at run time. Such metrics are the basis for measuring the 'Greenness' of an application and to detect where it consumes and wastes energy. Hints are provided to improve applications design and execution. Using two application scenarios, we show how monitoring and evaluation of Green Metrics enables to improve energy efficiency.

Keywords: energy efficiency; efficiency measurement; energy-aware IT systems; performance measurement; green metrics; information technology; energy consumption; IT service centres; computing resource usage; environmental impact; development costs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSC.2012.048897

International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing, 2012 Vol.2 No.3, pp.158 - 174

Received: 30 Sep 2011
Accepted: 12 Jan 2012
Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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