Efficiency metrics for qualification of datacenters in terms of useful workload

This paper proposes two different efficiency metrics for the qualification of Internet DataCenters (IDC). These metrics are intended to qualify IDC in terms of useful workload and were developed in common between seven industrial and academic partners in the EnergeTIC project. For the purposes of benchmarking and energy management system optimizations, these metrics rely on both energy consumptions and processor usage (%CPU). The final goal of these metrics is to be used as a tool in an Energy Management System developed for the EnergeTIC project which goal is to increase the energy efficiency of IDC connected to the grid and local renewable energy production, called Green or Smart datacenter. Some specific metrics already exist in IDC communities but are not suited for IDC benchmarking. The proposed metrics are the results of real monitoring of IDC in production. Comparisons on two actual cases are proposed in order to justify the choice of the metric´s definition and its usage in web hosting applications.