Introduces an on-demand model charging for power consumption separately reducing power wastage.

Memset, the managed services provider announced plans to address the spiralling cost of powering and cooling a datacentre by adapting an on-demand model charging businesses for power consumption separately.

Memset is currently testing a system that will automatically power down some servers in a customer's managed cluster when underused, and will bring them online as load increases. This allows customers to have burst capacity available at short notice without wasting power when at normal loads. Customers with managed clusters will then only be charged for the power used, enabling Memset to pass on cost savings, claims the company.

Whilst most providers already charge for bandwidth separately, the market has yet to look at charging for power. This is surprising, as power is fast becoming the single largest cost which is ahead of bandwidth, hardware and maintenance for hosting providers, including Memset.

"Integrating a scaling up and down model, and thereby reducing power consumption when its not needed, is one way of addressing the increasing energy costs facing companies and overcoming London's electricity restrictions. Currently, up to 1.5% of UK power goes towards powering servers, and most servers are underused. The average resource utilisation is 10-15% mainly due to over-provisioning of hardware to cope with spikes in demand. Whilst virtualisation and other innovations can address server utilisation, we knew something had to be done about our power consumption, especially in London where there is practically no power left, and its already being reserved for the 2012 Olympics," comments Kate Craig-Wood, MD of Memset.