Going Virtual is Going Green
There is an interesting piece in today’s Toronto Globe and Mail that involves RackForce, the company I work for.
WHEN IT COMES TO SAVING ENERGY, is doing better than most of us. Its three in Kelowna, British Columbia, run computer applications for thousands of clients worldwide. Over the last four years, Rackforce has made those data centres 40 to 50% more energy efficient.
Rackforce did this in two ways, explains , the company’s president. First, in 2003, the company adopted a concept called . This allows one physical computer to operate as several virtual machines. Although they share hardware, each virtual machine runs its own operating system and cannot see–or interfere with–the others. Most current servers are underutilized because they run only one application, to avoid the risk of programs interfering with one another. Dividing larger systems into virtual machines avoids wasting capacity while isolating each application, so no conflicts are possible. The energy savings are substantial, reducing power consumption by about 30%.
Then, last year, Rackforce took the next step, installing 320 new System x servers from IBM Corp. These machines use new that deliver more processing power per watt of electricity than older chips. “We have substantially increased the amount of computing power with less actual electricity consumption,” Dufour says.
When you add our use of power, you get a very green data center. Going green is smart business especially when you consider
“For every watt of power used [to run a server]you have to use at least a watt of power for cooling.”
RackForce is committed to being energy efficient. It is the right thing to do for the environment and the smart business decision as well.
Read the whole Globe and Mail article here
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