IBM's Big Green Gains

IBM Corp. reported its progress against its green goals as well as made a series of announcements aimed at enhancing their green initiatives. The recent hardware, software, and services announcements are focused on energy saving improvements for data center infrastructure and beyond.

Focal Points:

• IBM reported its new strategic data centers are designed to achieve a 71 percent efficiency rating. The centers in one year of operations achieved operational savings as high as 70 percent, and reduced energy consumption by up to 80 percent and floor space by up to 85 percent. Additionally, although the migration is still in process, 18,500 virtualized images were deployed as part of the consolidation of 3,900 Linux servers to 40 mainframes. In other hardware related news, IBM announced enhancements to its rear door heat exchanger.
• IBM revealed three new data center solutions designed to improve energy efficiency, reduce deployment time, and support high density zones without retrofits. The enterprise modular data center offers a level 3+ design for availability, standardized in 5000 square foot modules up to 20,000 sq. feet. It has an open architecture that supports other vendors and can be deployed in 25 percent less time than a custom design, according to IBM. The units are designed for a data center infrastructure efficiency (DCiE) rating of 66 percent. The portable modular data center is a fully functional data center with multi-vendor support. It is targeted for remote and temporary data centers and can be deployed in 12 to 14 weeks. The units are designed for level 3 availability with a DCiE rating of 77 percent. The high density zone offers a plug-and-play infrastructure to support high density servers in existing data centers. IBM claims these units can be implemented non-disruptively and are 35 percent less expensive to install than a retrofit of the data center.
• IBM unveiled a mobile measurement tool, VMware server virtualization services, SAN volume controller 4.3, and TS7530 tape virtualization. IBM claims the VMware server virtualization services could reduce hardware requirements by a 6:1 ratio or better, operating costs by up to 50 percent, provision time by up to 70 percent, and energy costs by 10 to 40 percent. The SAN volume controller and tape virtualization product are both aimed at curbing storage growth. In addition, IBM revealed its IT carbon strategy service. The service offering is a study designed to provide a high level view of energy consumption across the IT infrastructure and help prioritize opportunities and associated returns.

Experton Group believes vendors such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM are committed to driving energy conservation across their ecosystems and are also pursuing strategies to reduce costs and space, recycle materials, and consume fewer packaging and hazardous waste products. These efforts involve their business partners, customers, government agencies, and internal units so that gains can be maximized. IT executives should expect others to follow suit and should include these conservation criteria in their RFPs and bids. Additionally, IT executives should work with their strategic platform providers to develop quick hits and long-term solutions that can be applied in the enterprise to optimize operations while reducing expenses.