As reducing carbon footprint becomes an increasing concern for enterprises ÔÇô voluntarily or under regulatory pressure ÔÇô the market for solutions that help companies measure their energy usage and carbon emissions is expanding. Vendors compete by enhancing data collection capabilities of their solutions, their normalization capabilities and the level of comprehensiveness of enterprise infrastructure their solutions are able to track.

CA Technologies, one of the major players in this market, has released the next version of its ecoSoftware solution (ecoSoftware 2.0), adding to the variety of devices it can communicate with and automating its reporting capabilities. The idea behind ecoSoftware, first launched in October of 2009, was to create a solution that will enable monitoring, reporting and management of energy usage and sustainability performance from the executive boardroom all the way down to facilities managers, Terrence Clark, SVP and GM for CA ecoSoftware, said.

The solution's new features include the ability to collect and integrate real-time data from various devices and systems across geographically dispersed topologies. Called ecoMeter Gateway, the new feature enables collection of data from devices using a variety of protocols (Modbus TCP, BACnet, SNMP) and building management systems to calculate efficiency performance ratings, such as PUE or DCiE, and track them over time.

"Any device that is IP enabled, we're able to communicate with through our gateway," Clark said.

The ecoMeter discovers data-source devices automatically. These devices can include PDU's, CRAC units, generators, UPS units and humidity and temperature sensors in data centers, as well as network switches and routers.

Customers can create their own formula-based metrics.

ecoSoftware's new reporting and forecasting features, ecoGovernance 2.0, help streamline annual reporting processes. The capability can be used to facilitate compliance with UK's new Carbon Reduction Commitment requirements, or participation in voluntary disclosure programs such as the Global Reporting Initiative or the Carbon Disclosure Project.

ecoGovernance 2.0 allows for automated population of standard reports, using multiple metrics, units or currencies, which can then be converted automatically to generate uniform pre-assigned output units. CA offers the feature in nine languages.

The software can be deployed once and then scaled as needed. Price levels are based on the type of devices that are being monitored. The cost of monitoring 100 temperature sensors in a data center, for example, will differ from that of monitoring a CRAC unit.

Clark said entry-level cost for ecoSoftware was around $50,000.

Clients that have implemented ecoSoftware include Tesco, a large UK grocery retailer, and Datotel, a US provider of data center services. Below are two videos, describing these customers' experience with the solution.

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