Internet.com Webcast: Governing IT in a Green World

By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com

Supposing you were the sort of person who would consider shaking a stick at offerings of “educational” information on green IT, you might find, right now, that there is a bit more work than you can handle.

It seems like everybody’s doing an informational webcast on green IT at the moment - and more often than not they’re sponsored by one of the big technology companies with a vested interest in the decision-making of the people looking for information on “green IT,” like HP, Sun or IBM.

The notice I got today from Internet.com was on an upcoming webcast called “Governing IT in a Green World.” And it’s sponsored by IBM. The upside of the sponsorship being the “FREE” price tag for attendance (to “qualified attendees.”) (more…)

Tags: Green IT, IBM, Internet.com, webinar

IBM Offers Energy Efficiency Advice

IBM makes a lot of offers and announcements related to “green” data centers and IT. By now, we’ve all seen plenty.

But more often than not, they’re worth looking into. In general, I’ve found that, as information issued by companies in the interest of self-promotion goes, most of the “green IT” info that has been issued in the last few months has been quite interesting.

Last week, as part of its sponsorship of ITWorldCanada’s excellent “Green IT Playbook,” IBM offered up a consultation on data center energy efficiency. (more…)

Tags: data center, energy efficiency, IBM

HP Tops Green Data Center Study

By David Hamiton, theWHIR.com

October 15, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com) has been ranked at the top of the latest “Green Data Center” Vendor Matrix, an analytical tool developed by ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) as a clear rating of vendor position in specific markets.

According to ABI Research’s announcement Wednesday, IBM (www.ibm.com) and Cisco (www.cisco.com) claimed the second and third spots respectively in the company’s new evaluation of data center equipment vendor efforts to improve energy conservation and reduce environmental impact.

ABI Research’s new evaluation method is the latest in a field that is growing in visibility and momentum as organizations like The Green Grid (www.thegreengrid.org) have been making strides in developing similar metrics and best practices for data centers. Also, LEED and Energy Star certifications have also provided guidance for data center operators on how to develop greener IT strategies. In May, data center operator Digital Realty Trust (www.digitalrealty.com) said it was the first data center firm to publish energy efficiency data about its facilities using the Power Usage Effectiveness metric. (more…)

Tags: ABI Research, Cisco, data center, Digital Realty Trust, HP, IBM, The Green Grid

Someone Else Tours IBM’s Second-Life Green Data Center

By Liam Eagle, theWHIR.com blogs

I don’t have a Second Life account. I’ve never been completely clear on the merits of the program, though I wouldn’t argue necessarily that they don’t exist. For me, it wasn’t so much a question of whether it was a good virtual world as it was a question of whether I needed to experience a virtual world at all. I don’t, I think. Not just now, anyway.

So when IBM announced earlier this year that it was launching a virtual green data center in Second Life, it made for an interesting story, but didn’t immediately strike me as something to check out. As I said, I don’t have a Second Life account.

And I’ll admit that, not having the perspective of a user, the concept of a data center in Second Life puzzles me somewhat - it’s sort of the opposite of a data center in the sense that it actually takes up space in one.

Of course, I understand the demonstration aspect of the thing. And the fact that it’s showing off the company’s green technologies is cool. I just wasn’t going to go visit it. (more…)

Tags: data center, energy efficiency, IBM, Second Life

Vietnam Bank Goes Green with IBM

By Anastasia Tubanos, theWHIR.com

September 12, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — IBM (ibm.com) announced on Friday that it has collaborated with Saigon Commercial Bank to help the company establish a scalable green data center.

According to the most recent announcement, IBM will help SCB transform its current existing data center to a scalable modular data center, “creating a cost-effective and high quality 50 to 100 square meters data center.”

Founded in 1992, SCB, formerly known as Que Do Bank, says it became a well-known name in the Vietnamese financial services sector in 2003 and has been upgrading its technologies and modernizing its internal banking platform since the country entered the WTO.

As one of the “leading joint-stock commercial banks in Vietnam,” SCB teamed with IBM to deploy the data center consolidation with the explicit goals of reducing energy consumption as well as reducing cost, space and IT maintenance, while enhancing the efficiency and capacity of its data center facilities.

The new SMDC solution will enable SCB to lower its data center design costs by around 15 percent compared to that of the old raised-floor data center solution, says the company. SMDC will also enable SCB to bring down implementation costs by 20 percent and operating costs as much as by 40 percent.

“IBM engaged with SCB from the very beginning to understand our critical business needs and design appropriate solutions,” Than Ngoc Minh, chief accountant cum CIO of SCB.  “As one of the leading joint-stock commercial banks in Vietnam, we are expanding our business impressively. We look forward to IBM’s expertise to design and build a globally benchmarked, standardized, scalable and energy efficient facility that can support our dynamic growth plans effectively.”

IBM aims to implement the entire SMDC solution in “a record time” of eight to 24 weeks, compared to the industry norm, which IBM says is at about 18 to 24 months.

Since May 2007, IBM has been partnering with companies around the world as part of Project Big Green, a $1 billion initiative devoted to delivering technologies that help clients increase the level of energy efficiency in their data centers.

Over a year later in July, IBM reported it had launched the second phase of Project Big Green 2.0 in India where it will specifically be targeting large corporate customers in India and will be introducing new products and services, which focus on energy efficiency.

Tags: data center, energy efficiency, IBM, project big green, Saigon Commercial Bank

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