Most popular movies spawn a sequel, and it looks like the widely accepted power usage effectiveness (PUE) has achieved a similar distinction. PUE has become the most popularly used data center metric lately, perhaps as in some cases, if only as marketing tool. Along these lines are the “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the greenest data center of them all?” type of pronouncements recently made by some high-profile social media organizations.
Robert J Meyers, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star for Data Centers program generally agreed. “Since February 2010, EPA and DOE have co-chaired a committee that includes representation from numerous industry groups. Together, these groups issued a set of Guiding Principles for energy-efficiency metrics in data centers, in February 2010. In July 2010, the Task Force issued a Version 1 PUE document, with expanded guidance of how to compute PUE in accordance with these guiding principles, in a standalone data center building. In May 2011, the Task Force released a Version 2 PUE document, which expands on Version 1 to offer guidance for certain mixed-use settings,” he said.