A service level agreement (SLA) for energy efficiency is a guarantee from a service provider that specifically pertains to energy usage metrics. Similar to all SLAs, which outline agreed-upon minimum performance and capacity to a customer (depending on their service tier), an energy efficiency SLA specifically outlines the power utilization metrics.
Why is this new type of SLA so important? As environmental regulations, ESG initiatives, and the rising cost of power continue to impact business decisions, organisations are looking for new and better ways to improve power utilization in the data centre and beyond.
Energy efficiency SLAs are an important step in helping organisations meet their ESG goals, standardize power reduction efforts, and consciously choose service providers who share their values.
Learn more about SLAs: SLA vs. SLO vs. SLI >>
What Is an SLA for Energy Efficiency?
An SLA for energy efficiency is a guarantee to deliver a service at no more than a specified watt per unit of measure, depending on a tier of service—in this case, per tebibyte (TiB) of effective used capacity. If a customer has purchased data storage as a service (STaaS), an energy efficiency SLA from their STaaS provider could detail how much energy is used per array, per unit of data stored.
While the purpose of most SLAs is to ensure an agreed-upon level of service, quality, availability, capacity, and performance, the purpose of an SLA for energy efficiency is to ensure adherence to a strict energy usage limit. This is possible thanks to accurate, real-time energy usage metrics. In the STaaS example, a data storage array’s power consumption may be monitored in a real-time dashboard, creating both transparency and accountability. Many times there may also be a requirement to extract this data via reports and APIs so that it can be integrated into larger enterprise-wide systems.
SLAs can also be structured to include provisions for how a customer is compensated if the SLA is not met and how the provider will remediate the issue to meet the SLA going forward. For example, if a data centre outage or traffic spike leads to downtime or diminished bandwidth or performance, there may be remediations and fixes offered by the provider, in addition to any service credits.
Why Does an Energy Efficiency SLA Matter to You?
With any as-a-service delivery method, SLAs give customers transparency and peace of mind about a service, which may be off premises or managed by the provider.
The benefits of an energy efficiency SLA are similar. The transparency gives customers accurate data about their power utilization, guaranteeing the provider will adhere to improved efficiency standards. Down the line, these insights can help organisations hone in on areas of improvement or make future purchasing and licencing decisions that positively impact power consumption and cost.
The benefits stretch beyond the bottom line, however. In today’s world, two things are true:
- We’re creating more data than ever before.
- Storing all that data requires more energy and power.
Prioritizing energy efficiency in data storage technology can address both concerns at once. And for organisations that don’t just hold themselves accountable for change, this enables them to choose partners and providers who share the same goals, creating an ecosystem of sustainably minded partners.
Looking at energy efficiency SLAs in STaaS models, in particular, the benefits include:
Reduce carbon footprint in the data centre. It can help to minimize energy consumption of data storage, known to be a resource-intensive part of IT operations. Technology that can promise to achieve five times more data storage for less than a watt of power consumption per TiB not only reduces power utilization, it can also reduce rack space and overall data centre footprints.
