IBM has a press release on 27 of its 35 European data centers receiving energy efficiency status.
European Commission Awards IBM for Energy Efficient Data Centers
27 IBM Data Centers in Europe Receive Data Center Energy Efficiency Status
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ARMONK, N.Y. - 05 Jan 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the European Commission (EC), the executive body of the European Union, has awarded 27 IBM Data Centers for energy efficiency, based on the European Union (EU) Code of Conduct for Data Centers. The honor represents the largest portfolio of data centers from a single company to receive the recognition.
The EU Code of Conduct was created in response to increasing energy consumption in data centers. The EU aims to inform and encourage data center operators and owners to reduce energy consumption in a cost-effective manner without decreasing mission critical data center functions. The assessment is made against a set of best practices to reduce energy losses which include the usage of energy efficient hardware, installing free cooling and cold aisle containment. Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is an indicator for how efficiently a computer data center uses its power. In May, the Uptime Institute gave IBM data centers a rating of 1.65 for average power usage compared to the industry average of 1.8.
I had a chance to chat with Rich Lechner, IBM VP, Global Technology Services and Cloud in more detail on the press announcement.
One of the thing IBM has achieved in these same facilities is a doubling of compute and storage capacity in three years without increasing power use.
The energy improvements implemented in these data centers helped IBM meet a goal set in 2007 to double the IT capacity of its data centers within three years without increasing the power consumption.
Rich took some time to explain the range of 27 facilities that have achieved the award and there are more facilities that are planned to be submitted. IBM also has services to help companies get their own certification for their facilities.
For more details on what IBM did to achieve the energy efficiency improvements check out this PDF. Here is a graph you'll find interesting.
One of the tangents we took is discussing IBM's modular/flexible data center designs. Rich said there are 500 data center sites that use IBM's flexible modular architecture described here.
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