Data Center Workload Relocation Using Renewable Complementary Scores

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods for relocating workloads in data centers based on recent power source information fail to account for renewable energy fluctuations, leading to inefficiencies in utilizing renewable energy and inability to improve the RE ratio, especially for stateful workloads that require time to migrate.

Innovation Solution

A method for determining data centers to create remote copies based on historical renewable energy supply data, calculating a complementary score to identify optimal destination data centers, and dynamically swapping volume attributes to align workload migration with renewable energy availability.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of time

If workload relocation is based on recent power source information, then the relocation process is simple and fast, but the RE ratio cannot be improved because migration cannot follow renewable energy changes

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveworkload migration timeVSAvoidRE ratio improvement

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of timeVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by creating remote copies of workloads in advance at destination data centers before renewable energy becomes available. This allows the workload to be rapidly switched to the destination DC when needed, without waiting for time-consuming data migration, thus enabling the system to capitalize on renewable energy opportunities while maintaining fast response times.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates remote copies of workload data at destination data centers before migration is needed. These pre-existing copies enable instant workload switching when renewable energy becomes available at the destination DC, eliminating the need for time-consuming data transfer during actual migration events and thus resolving the contradiction between migration speed and RE ratio improvement.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

2Reliability

If stateful workload migration is performed, then data consistency is maintained, but migration time is too long to follow renewable energy fluctuations

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata consistencyVSAvoidmigration speed

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSSpeed

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by creating remote copies of workloads in advance at destination data centers before renewable energy becomes available. This allows the workload to be rapidly switched to the destination DC when needed, without waiting for time-consuming data migration, thus enabling the system to capitalize on renewable energy opportunities while maintaining fast response times.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates remote copies of workload data at destination data centers before migration is needed. These pre-existing copies enable instant workload switching when renewable energy becomes available at the destination DC, eliminating the need for time-consuming data transfer during actual migration events and thus resolving the contradiction between migration speed and RE ratio improvement.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Object-generated harmful factors

If workload control is implemented to match renewable energy supply, then carbon emissions are reduced, but the system complexity increases due to intermittent renewable nature

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecarbon emissionsVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Object-generated harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system introduces a workload control server as an intermediary that manages the complexity of coordinating between multiple data centers and renewable energy sources. This central coordinator handles the sophisticated logic of selecting destination DCs based on renewable energy forecasts, managing remote copy creation, and triggering migrations, thereby reducing the complexity burden on individual data center components while enabling effective carbon emission reduction.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system replaces complex mechanical coordination mechanisms with information-based solutions. Instead of requiring complex real-time communication and synchronization protocols between data centers, the system uses forecasted renewable energy information and pre-established remote copies to enable simple, rule-based migration decisions, thus reducing system complexity while achieving renewable energy matching.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Data Source

PatentUS20260030636A1Renewable-aware preliminary data centr combination selection and application relocation method

Publication Date: 2026.01.29 HITACHI VANTARA LTD

AI summary

Systems and methods described herein are directed to reduction of carbon emissions through data center workload control for controlling the migration of workloads between a first data center and one or more second data centers from a plurality of data centers based on renewable energy supply, including calculating a complementary score of each of the plurality of data centers based on information of time-series data of past renewable energy supply at the each of the plurality of data centers, determining the one or more second data centers as destination data centers for creation of remote copies to one or more volumes based on the complementary score; and executing creation of the remote copies to the one or more second data centers.