Don Klein spoke to the WHIR via email about Modius's new monitoring tool
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — As data centers are increasingly pressured to improve their energy efficiency, operators and owners are required to provide comprehensive reports on power usage and the energy efficiency of their equipment.
Data center monitoring solutions provider Modius (www.modius.com) recently developed a new data center monitoring system that addresses this need, giving data center operators the ability to enforce client bill back for energy expenses.
Modius OpenData System 3.5 allows data center operators to generate information to meet the needs of web hosts and colocation providers, with some interesting granularity.
The solution tracks energy usage and demand by item in a data center, providing details about the power consumption, time of day, capacity, peak and minimum usage, power usage effectiveness, and carbon footprint.
Available in Standard and Enterprise editions, OpenData System 3.5 can be installed and used in a web hosting operation or colocation facility of any size.
In an email interview with the WHIR, Modius VP marketing and business development Don Klein discusses the new OpenData System 3.5 and client bill back system.
WHIR: Does Modius hope to change the model of data center consumption and hosting services with this new solution?
Don Klein: Yes, Modius is changing the model of managing data center consumption in two ways. One, by capturing a continuous baseline of consumption data across both IT and facilities (in today’s world, most DCs use intermittent spot checks). And two, by providing ongoing analysis and diagnostics in order to put in place optimizations and automations without impacting availability of the data center (in today’s world, most DCs want to be more efficient but they don’t want to make any change to equipment that could potentially impact uptime, therefore they tend to over cool and over provision).
WHIR: What improvements did Modius make over previous versions of OpenData System?
DK: In the previous version, it was hard to slice the data by both time and group. We have improved that functionality now such that operators can measure power consumption down to individual racks and groups of tracks, and then output consumption data by period of time such that the operator can now bill back individual customers or business units for the energy they use.
WHIR: How many service providers are currently testing out this solution?
DK: We are currently testing the bill back capability at three medium to large sized colos, and then we will roll it out to enterprise customers after that. We are also working hand in hand with UEC/StarLine to roll out to their distributers.
WHIR: What has the response been like so far?
DK: We are working first in partnership with StarLine to integrate their rack-by-rack power meters, and the response has been very strong not only in the US, but also internationally.
WHIR: What does the pricing look like for OpenData System 3.5?
DK: We have two editions, one which is a starter kit for $2,000 a year per user for a single site, and then our enterprise edition which has our standard “by device” pricing and covers multiple sites with one instance.
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