Minimizing data center cooling and server power costs

Abstract

This paper focuses on power minimization in a data center accounting for both the information technology equipment and the air conditioning power usage. In particular we address the server consolidation (on/off state assignment) concurrently with the task assignment. We formulate the resulting optimization problem as an Integer Linear Programming problem and present a heuristic algorithm that solves it in polynomial time. Experimental results show an average of 13% power saving for different data center utilization rates compared to a baseline task assignment technique, which does not perform server consolidation.