Box recently decided to distribute its computing infrastructure across three facilities to more reliably host its storage and application intensive services. Early on, it failed to meter the power utilization of its devices, and as a result was underutilizing the capacity it was paying its colocation providers for. The session highlighted how Box decided to deploy intelligent rack power distribution units (PDUs) to track the power utilization of its devices and improve capacity management. As a result, Box is now able to report on power utilization for each of its 260 cabinets, and has been able to make informed decisions about where and when applications are run. This has led to optimal utilization of power and space, and provided more headroom for its services.
