Advanced Energy Efficiency – Networking Gear Goes Green without a Penalty

A significant sea change of awareness is underway around how networking impacts the energy efficiency of blade servers, containers and other rack-level infrastructures. The recent Blade.org Technology Symposium in New York highlighted Advanced Energy Efficiency as one of the Mega Trends that will characterize the data center of the future. (Converged Networking and Hyper Consolidation are the other two Mega Trends.)

The tide that’s rising is the increasing concern for the role that networking places in the overall energy efficiency of the datacenter environment. And with at least 10% of all data center real estate and power and cooling systems devoted to networking, it’s a relevant, bottom-line concern.

IDC analyst Cindy Borovick commented recently, “How networking fits into the overall data center environment changes the rules. The fact that vendors of data networking gear were not concerned with overall energy efficiency until now is notable.”

Look for IDC and other industry heavyweights to help educate the marketplace about this issue. However, even with the rise of notable groups such as The Green Grid consortium, and Climate Savers Computing Initiative, both of which BLADE recently joined, metrics and specification that rank the energy of networking are in their infancy. For example, as yet, there are no Energy Star ratings for blade servers, networking gear, or rack-level infrastructure – so far, Energy Star standards will only apply to 1U and 2U servers.

Heather Clancy writes in ZDnet’s always-insightful GreenTech Pastures, “So, should your company get all cynical about the green tech movement. I really don’t think so. But the arc of the economic downturn is going to accelerate the downward price pressure that someone might be able to charge as a green tech specialist. Better, instead, to focus on how to differentiate your value proposition with the green tech message WITHOUT looking like a luxury item.”
Link to: http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?p=1163

BLADE agrees that companies should not have to pay a penalty to go green and run their data centers more efficiently. In fact, on July 1, BLADE Network Technologies will introduce the first hybrid 1G/10G Ethernet “green blade” switch for IBM BladeCenter. The new BLADE switch provides 50 percent greater bandwidth and up to 50 percent better energy efficiency and, priced at $4,999, is up to 50 percent less expensive than comparable Cisco blade switches.

But, today, there are still no standards for the energy efficiency of networking gear. That needs to change, and BLADE intends to champion and lead that charge.