Power Virtual Server is an infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering that provides virtualized, on demand IBM Power Systems in IBM Cloud. This service enables organizations to run mission-critical enterprise workloads including SAP, Oracle, and IBM i/AIX applications, without refactoring their existing code, providing the same performance, security, and reliability as on-premises dedicated hardware. Power virtual servers are deployed in IBM data centers and connect to the IBM Cloud network allowing for seamless integration with other cloud services. This allows for frictionless migration of workloads as a dependable failover solution with high availability and disaster recovery as well as an opportunity to modernize applications. Due to these inherent benefits of cloud computing including increased agility, flexibility, and cost efficiency, clients are leveraging IBM Cloud Power Virtual Server to help establish a true hybrid cloud environment for greater return on their IT investments. 

Sustainability in Cloud Computing

With a focus on reducing the environmental impact of IT operations IBM maintains sustainability in cloud computing through a comprehensive strategy that includes using renewable energy, implementing energy-efficient hardware and data center designs, and providing clients with tools to manage and optimize their carbon footprint.

IBM Cloud’s carbon calculator displays the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission for an account by monitoring electricity consumption for services, resources, and the location and efficiency of data centers. Tracking GHG emissions is important to determine how much an account is associated with so end users can better manage and mitigate their carbon footprint over time. All workloads from IBM Cloud services are metered for electricity consumption. Data is then processed to produce a standards-based GHG emission estimate for each account per service, per location and resource group. The IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator provides a wide range of features to track GHG emissions:

• View total emissions by service, resource group, and location.
• View total emissions for an enterprise account.
• Filter emissions data by time, service, or location.
• Best practices for cloud sustainability.
• Export the data as a CSV file for additional analyses.
• View emissions data by using the API.

Learn more about how IBM Clouds methodology for achieving energy conservation, renewable electricity procurement, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets.

Emissions Data for Power Virtual Server

Power Virtual Server is now one of the many IBM Cloud services to provide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data for each account, grouped by time and location visible in IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator UI. This integration with IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator enables Power Virtual Server users to monitor the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of virtual machines running on Power 10 and Power 11 servers in their workspace. This information empowers Power Virtual Server users with control, transparency, and sustainability assurance. Data is gathered by the Power Virtual Server, via running agents, sent to the IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator and stored in IBM Cloud Object Storage (two year retention period) to meet compliance, security, and business needs. Computation of emissions for Power Virtual server entails:

Energy Consumed by Virtual Machine (VM) = (utilized CPU by VM)/total CPU utilized by host)*power consumed by host

The result is aggregated energy consumption by resource for each customer account per day and categorized by location for easy viewing.  Users can view and analyze data in a unified view in the IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator UI to gain insight into sustainability of their Power Virtual Server environment by simply selecting the service with no provisioning or configuration needed as shown here:

IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator is a no charge feature built into every IBM Cloud account with worldwide coverage. Users can easily discover via emissions widget in billing and usage dashboard which gives immediate access to standards-based emissions data for multiple types of workloads, by location, down to the individual cloud service.

The benefits to having this insight for Power Virtual Server environment include:

• Insights on carbon emissions across workloads by individual service in single pane of glass
• Identify energy “hot-spots” - which in turn are opportunities for reducing carbon footprint
• Track & contain carbon emissions within limits
• Auditable data for Carbon emission reports
• Export data into applications for further analysis

IBM Cloud and Sustainability

As organizations and users work to achieve better outcomes for their business and environment, digital technologies are a growing source of GHG emissions. Four main sources for GHG emissions include:

• Data Centers
• Extensive Data Analytics
• Security 
• Internet Usage

Now with this integration, clients can gain insights into the carbon emissions for their Power Virtual Server environment to help make better, more informed decisions on mitigating their footprint. To learn more about IBM Power Virtual Server and the Cloud Monitoring integration options check out the IBM Cloud docs pages below:

1.        Getting Started with Power Virtual Server

2.        Monitoring Metrics for IBM Power Virtual Server

For more information about sustainability, see IT sustainability beyond the data center.