According to data from the Uptime Institute, the average value of the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) coefficient for data centers in 2020 is 1.58, only slightly better than the figure of seven years ago at 1.65. Moreover, last year the average even grew to 1.67, while in 2018 it was 1.58.
The PUE indicates how efficiently an IT system uses its electricity whether it be a data center, a cluster, a supercomputer, and so on. The coefficient shows the ratio of the total energy consumption of a given system to the cost of computing power alone.
Ideally, the figure is equal to one. In practice, however, the most energy-efficient modern systems have a PUE of just less than 1.1. Furthermore, there may be other contributing factors affecting the calculation of the total energy consumption. For instance, not everyone takes into account the office equipment and maintenance needs of the data center. Be that as it may, in 2007, when this metric was proposed, and which later became the ISO / IEC standard, the PUE coefficient averaged 2.65. Until 2013, it had been declining at a very fast pace, after which the rate leveled off quickly.
The Uptime Institute states that the explanation lies in the fact that the first stage involved relatively simple and cheap methods of increasing efficiency, while in subsequent stages the gains were much harder won. Most new data centers built on entirely new infrastructure fit into the PUE range from 1.2 to 1.4. However, there are still thousands of data centers built on older lines that cannot be updated. This is not only for economic reasons but also because, for one, they need to maintain a high level of accessibility.
New data centers are often built by hyperscalers, and these data centers as a whole are both larger and more energy efficient. According to the Uptime Institute, in 2019 data centers with a capacity of 20 MW or higher tend to have a lower average PUE. Google data shows the same general trend, but the PUE value of the company’s data centers is already below the industry average.
HOSTKEY is also working to improve energy efficiency when hosting its servers. We use our own proprietary invention — an improved liquid cooling system for servers. This facilitates a significant reduction in power consumption, and given that servers based on GPU cards do not heat up to anywhere near the extent of CPU servers, their performance does not decrease during high-load computing. This allows for the maintenance of stability in client applications, extending the life of the servers and the avoidance of accidents.
