Energy-aware data centre management

Cloud computing is one way in which communications within and between data centres can be optimised by using resources which are physically close to the client, are exposed to lower electricity costs, contribute a smaller carbon footprint or have residual resources sufficient to fulfil Quality of Service requirements. Optimisation of activity involving data centres is a next generation network management objective due to continued growth in the number of plants and volume of operations within, factors which contribute to environmental concerns associated with energy consumption and carbon emissions from data centre facilities when renewable energy resources are not used. In this paper, we present an algorithmic mechanism developed to automate selection of a data centre in response to application requests, the Data Centre (DC) Energy-Efficient Context-Aware Broker (e-CAB). Through integration of the DCe-CAB in a case study scenario, operational improvement through reduction of carbon emission and balancing of other performance-related attributes including delay and financial cost is achieved, validating the DCe-CAB's positive impact.