June 11, 2008

IBM Says New Modular Data Centers Can Slash Energy Use 50%

A new IBM modular data center that mimics the power and energy efficiency of IBM’s computing hubs can reduce energy costs by up to 50 percent, the company says.

IBM says it designed the new data center, an expansion of Project Big Green, which the company launched last year, because roughly 60 percent of the capital costs and 50 percent of the operational costs of running a data center are energy related.

This isn’t IBM’s first take on a modular, energy efficient system. Sun has also been working in the modular data center space. It launched Project BlackBox - an energy efficient modular data center with eight racks in a shipping container.

IBM says the data centers are designed to power businesses ranging from large enterprises to small organizations in remote areas and to meet Green Grid’s ratings for energy leadership.

The Enterprise Modular Data Center, the Portable Modular Data Center and the High Density Zone data center are essentially “miniature versions” of IBM’s data centers and mimic the power and energy efficiency of IBM facilities, according to IBM.

Watch a video about IBM’s new modular data centers here.

Water Cooled Chips

In addition to more energy effieint data center options, IBM scientists have developed water-cooled computer chips that could help cut energy use in the future. In collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin, IBM Researchers have demonstrated a prototype that integrates a water cooling system.

Software

IBM also announced new software for the IBM SAN Volume Controller 4.3 (SVC 4.3), a storage virtualization system that can improve the flexibility and responsiveness of IT infrastructures and reduce requirements for additional physical storage hardware systems.

Financing

Also from IBM: IBM Global Financing announced a financial package for energy efficient IT services, infrastructure and business transformation projects.

Last month, IBM announced “Software for a Greener World,” new energy-management software to help businesses achieve optimize infrastructure, workloads and people for energy efficiency.

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