Two key trends have emerged in the data centre: the demand from today’s IT equipment for more power, and the increasing cost of that power. Couple these with the worldwide growth in demand for data centres and IT servers, and it is clear that data centre managers are facing growing pressure to manage and optimise their available power for growth, at the same time as managing the increasing associated costs. To help them achieve this, they need an accurate view of the power and energy being consumed in the data centre – from row to rack, and right down to the individual server level. Only then can they truly understand the power usage and optimise the available power.