Server consolidation: Big Blue goes Big Green

Aug 02, 2007

Ulrich Bantle

Consolidating 3900 servers on 30 Linux mainframes based on IBM's own Z Series has helped IBM to cut its power bill considerably. Power consumption has dropped by up to 80 percent.

The company also anticipates savings in software and support for itself and customers. IBM committed itself to saving energy in May when it launched its Project Big Green, but data center consolidation actually started much earlier than this. IBM refers to data center consolidation starting in 1997 with just seven of an original total of 155 data centers now remaining. Of these seven the facilities in Poughkeepsie (New York), Southbury (Connecticut), Boulder (Colorado), Portsmouth (Great Britain), Osaka (Japan) and Sydney (Australia) are contributing to the consolidation process. IBM's Global Asset Recovery Service will be handling recycling of hardware made redundant by the project.
According to IBM sources, IBM data centers occupy a floor space of 750,000 square meters. Capacities are not dedicated entirely to internal use and customers can purchase CPU time.

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