Whenever I talk about Green efforts in the data center, I try talking to the network guys, but the response is usually the power costs for our network are not significant. Well at Interop Green IT has arrived with Nortel pushing the competition.
ComputerWorld reports on Interop and Green IT's Appeal.
May 2, 2008 (Computerworld) LAS VEGAS -- Green IT was a major theme at Interop this week, as vendors outbid one another on how well their networking gear could lower power consumption to help save the planet.
Some of the green IT claims were not-so-veiled attacks on the biggest switching and routing vendor, Cisco Systems Inc. In response to comments from competitors, Marie Hattar, Cisco's vice president of network systems and security, demurred in an interview, "We didn't want to go with the 'greenwashing' treatment."
Hattar's comment aside, Nortel Networks Corp. cited a January study by The Tolly Group Inc. that said some of Nortel's networking gear uses 50% less power than Cisco gear. Joel Hackney, president of enterprise solutions at Nortel, said in an interview that Tolly and other studies have shown Nortel data center gear, in addition to being more energy-efficient, can offer 20 times the performance and seven times the resiliency (meaning submilliseconds of recovery time from an outage) of Cisco's and other competing products.
The market even has vendors developing network measurement tools.
The assessment of green IT was picked up by at least one other vendor, Calabasas, Calif.-based Ixia, which demonstrated a proof-of-concept testing system for measuring power efficiency in relation to network and application load. Areg Alimian, technical product manager at Ixia, said tools are lacking for making such measurements. The company is providing the technology used by Miercom in its Certified Green testing process.
Cisco believes in the Green Messaging as well. See the Al Gore and John Chambers webcast.
Al Gore, John Chambers and Sue Bostrom will come together in a virtual unified communications environment before a live audience of technology leaders to examine the critical role that innovation can play in mitigating climate change. The virtual discussion will also be streamed live via a webcast session for general viewing.
This event marks a technological breakthrough showcasing a new way of communicating and collaborating in which the panelists will appear as if they are in the same room even though they will be thousands of miles apart. This unique virtual discussion will take place via the Cisco TelePresence system with John Chambers, Al Gore and Sue Bostrom addressing live audiences simultaneously in London, England, Orlando, Fla.,and several other locations around the world.
