El Cerrito-based Vigilent provides intelligent energy management solutions for data centers, telcos, and large buildings. Founded in 2004, Vigilent has received funding of $6.7 Million from Accel Partners, Gaurav Garg, Peter Wagner and TELUS Ventures

The data center industry is in the midst of a radical transformation as cloud services and mobile devices promise an always-available, hosted infrastructure where stock trades and family vacation photos are equally valued and should be available instantly.


For all the vague talk about things "living in the cloud," it is largely a marketing term. There is no cloud. The files are where they have always been, on a hard drive in a server rack in some massive data center being pummeled with cold air.


This has been the status quo for years, as facility managers were given blank checks to keep the cooling equipment spewing arctic air on the IT racks because that was thought to be the safest way to do the all-important job of keeping sensitive IT equipment cool and data centers running without interruption.


But, with cheaper bandwidth and increasing energy costs, the profit margins for data centers keeps getting smaller as uptime expectations continue to skyrocket.


To continue managing by status quo is unsustainable. Energy consumption in data centers has largely been an unmanaged expense. A data center may only represent two percent of a company's real estate portfolio, but it can account for 20 percent of its energy spend. This much spending simply cannot remain unchecked.

Data Center Infrastructure Management

Recognizing this issue, the data center industry – and really, any company dependent upon telephones and the Internet – has moved to adopt Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solutions to address this overall issue. DCIM strives to provide a structure for understanding and managing the many contributors to energy waste. An example is overcooling, which can drive up energy costs by 40 percent.


Applying intelligent energy management technology is an important tool to optimize energy usage, cooling the overall room based on the real-time IT load. The room gets warmer, but remains within industry-standard, safe temperature ranges. Most importantly, this strategy only delivers as much cooling as the room demands at any specific moment, eliminating waste. This is a radical departure from the always-on, always-cold approach that has historically been used–an artifact from when energy costs were low and demands for large amounts of data had yet to emerge.

Of Energy costs and data

Although data center operators know they need to save on energy, it is becoming more clear just how to accomplish that objective. They may realize they spend too much on cooling, but the over-spending still occurs because they simply have not had the information they need to make the right decisions.


The fact is, the amount of operational data required for the efficient operation of a data center can quickly overwhelm any individual's decision-making ability, and that is where artificial intelligence-based approaches can play an essential role. The leading data center operators are now stepping up their game by deploying DCIM- and AI-based solutions that make "best practice" become "standard practice."


Companies still waiting to see how the dust settles are at risk. As energy costs and data use continue to soar, ignoring the business impacts of these trends is not just risky, it is irresponsible.

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