LAUSR

Purpose Data centers (DCs) are similar to traditional factories in many aspects like response time constraints, limited capacity, and utilization levels. Several indicators have been developed to monitor and compare productivity in manufacturing. However, in DCs most used indicators focus on technical aspects of infrastructure, not efficiency of operations. In this paper, we rely on operations management (OM) to define a commensurate and proportionate DC performance indicator: the energy-efficient utilization indicator (EEUI). EEUI makes objective and comparative assessment of efficiency possible independently of the operating environment and its constraints. Design/methodology/approach We follow a design science approach, which follows the practitioner’s initial steps for finding solutions to business relevant problems prior to theory building. Therefore, this approach fits well with this research, as it is primarily motivated by business and management needs. EEUI combines both the amount of energy cons...