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'Power Capping' the Datacenter
snydeq writes "Datacenter operators seeking increased server density may soon turn to power capping, an emerging technology that limits the amount of electricity a server can consume, InfoWorld reports. The practice, which can be applied at the rack level, ensures that no server draws above a set power level, thereby increasing datacenter capacity within a rack-level power envelope by as much as 20 percent, according to a proof-of-concept study at Baidu, China's largest search company. As with powering down servers during off hours, of course, power capping incurs calculated risk, as those in charge of business-critical applications may be reluctant to set power limits below maximum utilization. Yet given IT's need to contend with the permanent energy crisis, the notion of power capping the datacenter could prove advantageous."
This might be the stupidest thing I have heard in a while. If my servers are eating a bunch of power then they are doing a bunch of work. If some bozo green policy turns my server down during a peak time then my business would suffer. I would then move my servers to another provider beginning the next day. Pricing my server's power might be one way get me to buy more efficient servers but that is as close some green crap that I would accept.