IBM launches initiative to reduce use of electricity
IBM Corp., the world’s largest provider of computer services, plans to spend $1 billion a year to make corporate data centers more energy-efficient.
New software, hardware and services will double the computing power of IBM’s data facilities over the next three years without increasing energy use, the Armonk, N.Y.-based company said Thursday.
The effort comes as electricity usage soars in data centers, which run the Internet and store corporate information. The cost to power and cool data centers this year will exceed the expense of the computers themselves, according to research firm IDC.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is among the companies joining IBM’s new initiative, Project Big Green. In California, PG&E; says, data servers consume an estimated 2% of the state’s energy.
The energy company plans to use IBM to update its computing facilities and consolidate servers, going from 300 in its San Francisco and Fairfield, Calif., data centers to about six. PG&E; also plans to use IBM’s “mobile measurement technology” to identify hot spots and air leakages.
PG&E;, which serves about 10 million California customers north of Bakersfield, expects the technology to save about $25 million in energy, personnel, hardware and software maintenance costs over the next three years. PG&E; is considering offering similar technologies in its energy incentive program for commercial customers, said Keely Wachs, the company’s environmental communications manager.
IBM operates one of the biggest data centers in the world with 10,000 servers in San Jose. The company has been using “provisioning” software that reduces 80% of power consumption on servers automatically by putting them on standby mode when they are not needed.
An IBM spokeswoman said that if this software were deployed in all U.S. data centers, the country could save 5.4 billion kilowatt hours a year, enough electricity to heat 370,000 homes for a winter.
In addition to improving its own data centers, IBM aims to help other companies upgrade their facilities. The company says businesses spend $25 billion each year to design, build and improve their data centers.
Bloomberg News was used in compiling this report.
