High density IT equipment stresses the power density capability of modern data centers. Installation & 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. The critical success factors are:
- Providing accurate capacity forecasts
- 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 & 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 white paper from TechTarget 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 & 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.