servers

A concept that has been getting popular as computer get faster and have large hard drives is virtualization. The basic idea behind virtualization is that a virtual computer can take up part of an existing computer and have no knowledge of other possible virtual computers on the same machine.

The green movement appears to be stalling amongst some IT professionals. In addition,  a recent survey reveals IT departments are less willing to sacrifice their performance or pay a premium on green products for the betterment of the environment.

Its worth stating, again, what is really the blindingly obvious - thin-client work stations use one-twentieth of the power of a typical PC (10-20 watts versus 200-400 watts), require no maintenance or technical per-machine support and Open Source software is free of licence costs.

Major vendors in the IT server industry have banded together to create a new standard for measuring the relation of power consumption to performance. This is a major step forward for end user who want a realistic measure of the power/efficiency ration of rival products. It should be agreat help to all those who want to buy green and who have to justify the financial cost of doing so.

Steven Sams, IBM Vice President of Global Site & Facilities, is interviewed, in which he describes an energy crunch facing IT data centers and how IBM's Project Big Green initiative aims to solve it.

As the focus on climate change continues to grow, IBM is launching a corporate-led initiative in which businesses earncash or credits for reducing their energy consumption. As part of the program, IBM Efficiency Certificates, clients are rewarded for lowering the amount of energy needed to run their data centers.

Cassatt has unveiled technology that allows datacentre managers to automatically switch off idling servers, a move which the company claims can halve electricity costs in a datacentre.

According to the release the The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported last month that data centers are consuming up to 1.5 percent of all the electricity generated in the U.S.

Google has unveiled a series of new environmentally-friendly initiatives including the installation of solar panels on the roof of its Mountain View, CA headquarters. This solar installation, the largest US corporate solar installation to date, will generate an electrical output that is enough to supply an estimated 1,000 average California homes.

IBM has announced plans to consolidate its data center from 3,900 computer servers onto about 30 System z mainframes. The initiative is part of Project Big Green, a broad commitment that IBM announced in May to sharply reduce data center energy consumption for IBM and its clients. According to IBM, the new server environment will consume approximately 80 percent less energy than the current set up and the company expects
significant savings over five years in energy, software and system support costs.