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Policy, Technology

Reducing IT carbon footprint by 80-90 per cent

By Alice Kok | 5 October 2008

‘Carbon Calculator’ and online ‘Server Consolidation Analysis Resource’ released.

A range of new online tools intending to help companies consolidate their IT infrastructure and minimise electricity usage have been released by Australian company, Ideas International.

The ‘Carbon Calculator’ has been released in conjunction its web-based IT industry database and analysis tool, Server Consolidation Analysis Resource (Server CAR).

The value of IT hardware consolidation has increased due to the focus placed on reducing emissions as companies attempt to reduce maintenance and administration costs related to information-technology infrastructure and take advantage of virtualisation technology. With carbon emissions trading schemes and mandatory emissions reporting underscoring global climate and resource issues, countless companies around the world now have the added goals of sustainability and reduction of their carbon footprints.

Information-technology is a critical area of focus for organisations whose carbon emissions are directly related to the electricity it takes to operate their IT infrastructures. In some countries, increasing electricity consumption from IT operations is placing ever greater stress on the delivery and availability of electrical power itself, with an industry figure of 2 per cent of all emissions originating from IT. And these organisations incur escalating electricity bills as a result of rising power costs.

Australia’s Ideas International is providing assistance to organisations facing the challenge to minimise the carbon footprint from IT power and cooling – and save on electricity and administration costs as well.

“It is possible to make very substantial reductions in both carbon footprint and electricity costs in the order of 80 to 90 per cent, by simply harnessing the benefits of new server technology,” said Stephen Bowhill, Ideas International’s CEO. “Our Server CAR and Carbon Calculator are invaluable resources for those companies embarking on server consolidation and carbon emission reduction projects.”

Server CAR will enable users to rapidly model their many different server consolidation scenarios with a key focus on quantifying before and after views of performance and carbon footprint. Subscribers will have online access to the most comprehensive IT industry database of current and historical server configurations sold by the leading server manufacturers, dating back to 1996. To allow users to model their server performance, Ideas International has created its own industry performance benchmark called RPE2. This is a unique metric that powers the Server CAR’s performance views and represents IDEAS analysts’ evaluation of the performance rating of any particular server.

Server CAR can also be delivered with IDEAS’ own Competitive Profiles application suite, through which users can easily retrieve procurement intelligence such as side by side product features, global pricing and cost of ownership. As all of the tools are available via the same interface, the user has the benefit of powerful, time-saving cross referencing and database linkages.

The fully integrated Carbon Calculator calculates current and proposed electricity costs and savings, CO2 equivalent emissions and reductions, as well as carbon emissions and reductions. Results are provided in localised currency and units of measurement. This online tool can be deployed globally and its power can be leveraged across an entire enterprise.

Said Bowhill, “Server CAR will help organisations fast track server consolidation analysis at the initial stages of their projects by providing an independent and impartial source of advice. The new Carbon Calculator provides essential information to track project contributions directly to corporate carbon reduction goals.”

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