電腦機房空調產業的技術創新與商業模式研究：以中國市場為例

Abstract

由於數據中心的高耗電，節能已成為發展主流，機房空調業者也積極改善能耗效率。本研究觀察到部份機房空調廠商推出技術創新之列間空調，具優異之節能表現，可降低機房PUE至1.5~1.6，但尚未廣為市場接受，研究其主因有三：高價格、顧客對產品陌生及傳統設計慣性。在創新擴散理論中，根據S型之採用曲線特性，採用必須及時達到關鍵量，才能使該創新成功進入成長期；列間空調之採用曲線明顯未達關鍵量。為加速列間空調之採用，本研究提出一創新之商業模式，稱為制冷費商業模式，冀望其能克服市場困境，促使採用及時達到關鍵量。 機房空調產業現行採用都是產品導向的商業模式。制冷費商業模式屬服務導向，實踐產品服務化。此模式由廠商免費幫顧客建造節能空調系統，提供顧客機房所需制冷，以IT負載做為制冷計量標準，依用量收取「制冷費」，如水電一般。如此，廠商由空調設備銷售轉為制冷提供者。 制冷費商業模式之價值創造來自列間空調的節能。研究發現，廠商與顧客的總價值是固定曲線，與制冷費訂價公式無關，但訂價公式將影響廠商與顧客的價值分配。制冷費商業模式以傳統空調之用電費做為訂價標準，將列間空調比傳統空調之節能成果由廠商與顧客分享，價值分配偏重顧客，因其設計目的是要吸引顧客採用列間空調。 當IT滿載，初期投資約3年回收，產品生命週期以10年計，廠商價值相當於年淨利14.8%之投資，相當機房空調業者淨利，對廠商而言，此模式具可行性。不過，廠商價值曲線為正斜率，IT負載率愈小，價值愈低，存在虧損風險，本研究建議訂定基本制冷費，保證廠商最小收入以避免虧損風險。綜合整體分析，制冷費商業模式具創新性，亦能克服列間空調之困境，為可行之商業模式。

Due to increasing electricity consumption from using computers, energy conservation has become a critical issue for designing data centers. Computer room cooling industry keeps actively improving the energy efficiency with technical innovation, such as row cooling approach which can provide much better power saving performance than the traditional design. Although row cooling can reduce the PUE to 1.5 to 1.6, but it is still far away from reaching a critical mass of acceptance in the market, mainly due to three key reasons: high installation price, unfamiliar to customers and inertia of traditional design. The present study attempts to find feasible ways to accelerate market adoption on row cooling by proposing an innovative business model, known as the cooling-fee business model. All existing business models adopted by computer room cooling industry are product-oriented. Cooling-fee business model is service-oriented, practicing servitization of product business model. Simply speaking, the core design of this model is that computer room cooling manufacturers construct and own row cooling systems while the user organization will be charged cooling fee based on its IT equipment power loading. The manufacturer becomes a service provider instead of equipment provider. Cooling-fee business model creates value from energy saving. The total value of manufacturer gained and customer gained is a fixed curve and independent from pricing formula. The pricing formula will affect the value allocation for manufacturer and customer. Cooling-fee business model is to leverage electricity charge of traditional perimeter cooling as pricing benchmark. The saving between in row and traditional perimeter cooling will be shared by the manufacturer and the customer. The allocation is biased towards the customer in order to attract more adoption. Under the assumption of full IT loading and 10-year product life cycle, the payback period will be three years with an equivalent rate of return on investment around 14.8%, close to average net profit of computer room cooling industry, which reflects its feasibility. However, to hedge the downside risk of low IT loading, there would be a basic charge to the user. We provide comprehensive analyses to prove the cooling-fee business model is innovative, feasible and is able to overcome the plight of the in row cooling.