Method to Fairly Distribute Power Saving Benefits in a Cloud among Various Customers

Cloud computing infrastructure offers new levels of flexibility and efficiency in a datacenter enabling more and more enterprises to adopt cloud and optimally utilize their IT infrastructure. Power management features in the platform and its exploitation through operating system policies enable significant cost savings by efficiently managing the power consumption. Most of the platform power saving features and policies are designed to exploit changes in server utilization. As the utilization decreases, more power saving features are turned-on, thereby reducing the server's power consumption. For a cloud service provider, cost savings due to power saving drives better ROI1. However for a cloud user who pays a fixed charge to the provider based on provisioned hours, there are no cost benefits due to lower power usage. In the absence of any benefit due to power savings getting passed to the end-user, there is less motivation for the cloud user to choose energy efficient policies, even for non-critical workloads. This paper describes a mechanism to pass on the benefits accrued due to power savings from cloud provider to the cloud consumer so as to encourage the consumer to choose power efficient policies and contribute to the overall reduction in power consumption and carbon footprint.