Energy Performance Assessment of Virtualization Technologies Using Small Environmental Monitoring Sensors.docVIP

Sensors 2012, 12, 6610-6628; doi:10.3390/s120506610 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Energy Performance Assessment of Virtualization Technologies Using Small Environmental Monitoring Sensors Lu Liu 1,*, Osama Masfary 2 and Nick Antonopoulos 1 1 School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Derby, Derby, Derbyshire, DE22 1GB, UK; E-Mail: n.antonopoulos@derby.ac.uk 2 B2net Ltd., Dunston Technology Park, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S41 8NG, UK; E-Mail: omasfary@proact.co.uk * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: l.liu@derby.ac.uk; Tel.: +44-133-259-1707. Received: 13 March 2012; in revised form: 1 May 2012 / Accepted: 14 May 2012 / Published: 18 May 2012 Abstract: The increasing trends of electrical consumption within data centres are a growing concern for business owners as they are quickly becoming a large fraction of the total cost of ownership. Ultra small sensors could be deployed within a data centre to monitor environmental factors to lower the electrical costs and improve the energy efficiency. Since servers and air conditioners represent the top users of electrical power in the data centre, this research sets out to explore methods from each subsystem of the data centre as part of an overall energy efficient solution. In this paper, we investigate the current trends of Green IT awareness and how the deployment of small environmental sensors and Site Infrastructure equipment optimization techniques which can offer a solution to a global issue by reducing carbon emissions. Keywords: virtualization; small sensors; Green IT; service oriented computing 1. Introduction Recent years have witnessed the continuing development of the Internet from its original communication purpose (e.g., email) and content provision (e.g., Web) to an application deployment platform, where increased computing and storage capab