Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and its reciprocal Data Center infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE) are widely accepted benchmarking standards proposed by the Green Grid to help IT Professionals determine how energy efficient data centers are, and to monitor the impact of their efficiency efforts. The Uptime Institute also has a comprehensive benchmark it recommends named Corporate Average Data center Efficiency (CADE). At their February 2009 Technical Forum, the Green Grid introduced new benchmarks named Data Center Productivity (DCP) and Data Center energy Productivity (DCeP) which probe into the useful work produced by your data center. All benchmarks have their value, and when used correctly, they can be a useful and essential tool for improving your data center energy efficiency.

Here is a link to a deep dive about PUE/DCiE, and exactly how to calculate them.

Compare your PUE /DCiE with Schneider Electric’s PUE calculator, linked here.