Energy savings through Linux-based servers

San Francisco, CA—IBM, as part of its Project Big Green commitment, announced the IBM Big Green Linux initiative to help its clients further integrate Linux as a way to reduce costs and energy consumption by building cooler data centers.

By Control Engineering Staff August 17, 2007

San Francisco, CA —IBM, as part of its Project Big Green commitment, announced the IBM Big Green Linux initiative to help its clients further integrate Linux as a way to reduce costs and energy consumption by building cooler data centers. IBM plans to consolidate approximately 3,900 of its own computer servers onto about 30 System z mainframes running on the Linux operating system. The company anticipates that the new server environment will consume about 80% less energy than the current setup, saving in energy, software, and system support costs.

“Businesses, governments, and clients around the world are all actively searching for ways to build cooler and more energy-efficient data centers as a way to reduce costs and address environmental concerns,” says Inna Kuznetsova, IBM’s global executive for Linux. Nearly 700 companies have migrated from UNIX platforms to IBM System p running on Linux or AIX since the beginning of 2006. Volkswagon AG and Telefonica Moviles Espana are two clients recently consolidating their Linux workloads as they seek to maximize IT investments and become more energy efficient.

Information Server Blade, one of IBM’s Linux-driven products, aims to help clients reduce energy consumption by consolidating and moving massive amounts of data to control information overload problems. The system is said to simplify large data integration projects with an enterprise-wide view of information, resulting in better business insight and real-time access to trusted information.

IBM and Novell joined forces to capture a larger piece of the growing open source application server market. Under the agreement, Novell will deliver and support WebSphere Application Server Community Edition as part of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Also available is an open collaboration client solution delivered through business partners, providing businesses a way to install integrated email, instant messaging, and office productivity tools on a Linux desktop. Built on the Eclipse open framework and powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from Novell, the client consists of software products such as IBM Lotus Notes with IBM office productivity editors and IBM Lotus Sametime.

—Edited by Lisa Sutor , Control Engineering Daily News Desk