Case Study: eBay achieves 50% lower data center operating costs and real-time energy optimization with Raritan Dominion PX rack PDUs

Real-Time Energy Optimization and Best Practices In a Mission-Critical Data Center

eBay, one of the world’s largest Internet commerce platforms with more than 90 million active users, faced rising compute demand and escalating data center costs while needing near‑perfect uptime (downtime would cost about $2,000/second). To break the linear link between growth and operating expense, eBay launched a four‑year strategy culminating in Project Topaz (opened May 2010) to cut power costs in half, double compute performance, and increase operational agility and reliability.

Topaz combines optimized facility design (water‑side economizers, rainwater collection, dynamic controls), hot‑aisle containment, 400V rack distribution, overhead busways and Raritan Dominion PX intelligent rack PDUs for per‑server power and temperature monitoring. The result is a Tier IV‑reliable, flexible data center with a PUE of 1.4, LEED Gold certification, sub ±1% metering accuracy, and an operating model that is roughly 50% less expensive than the centers it replaced.

eBay