Energy consumption in individual data centers is increasing rapidly, by 8% to 12% per year. The energy is used for powering IT systems (for example, servers, storage and networking equipment) and the facility’s components (for example, air-conditioning systems, power distribution units and uninterruptible power supply systems). The increase in energy consumption is driven by users installing more equipment, and by the increasing power requirements of high-density server architectures. While data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools monitor and model energy use across the data center, server-based energy management software tools are specifically designed to measure the energy use within server units. They are normally an enhancement to existing server management tools, such as HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) or IBM Systems Director. These software tools are critical to gaining accurate and real-time measurements of the amount of energy a particular server is using. This information can then be fed into a reporting tool or into a broader DCIM toolset. The information will also be an important trigger for the real-time changes that will drive real-time infrastructure. Hence, for example, a change in energy consumption may drive a process to move an application from one server to another.