Winston Chai, Business Times 24 Dec 07;
Tech firms going green are offering more energy-efficient data centres
REDUCING the appetite of power-hungry data centres was a key focal point for enterprise networking and hardware makers this year as customers are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of energy-efficiency on the environment and their own bottom lines.
As the repository for critical business information and IT systems, data centres are typically packed with racks of servers, networking and storage equipment that are sapping electricity round-the-clock. To add to the consumption, such facilities often require special cooling systems to dissipate the heat generated by the towers of machinery, making them prime targets for power conservation.
'The increased emphasis on green IT has propelled data centres to the limelight. With data centres consuming more energy than any other IT environment, both users and providers of technology have been placed under scrutiny,' said Tom Cheong, Cisco System's managing director of Singapore and Brunei.
'There is now an urgent need to review processes to ensure environmental sustainability, and the technology industry has been looked upon as the catalyst for this positive change by providing environmentally-friendly solutions,' he added. Against this backdrop, US authorities are even thinking of allocating energy ratings to IT equipment like servers. As a result, network equipment suppliers like Cisco, as well as firms like Sun, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and IBM have all released new products and services this year that promise to slash the electricity bills for their customers.
Beyond power-efficient equipment, 3Com is also pushing for a new Ethernet networking standard to lower power costs through more effective data distribution. 'The proposed 'Energy-Efficient Ethernet standard' is aimed at providing a tool by which the link speed can be reduced during periods of low utilisation. This lower speed of operation will reduce energy consumption and as such result in cost-savings,' said Orcun Tezel, technical director of 3Com South Asia.
Although environmental legislation is still in its infancy in Singapore and most parts of Asia, businesses across the region are already warming up to the pitch of having more energy-efficient IT equipment. 'Energy efficiency has been the key focus for many organisations. We noticed a trend where customers are increasingly concerned over the power and space available in their data centres,' said Lionel Lim, president of Asia South and Greater China at Sun Microsystems.
Echoing the view, Tan Yen Yen, HP Singapore's vice- president and managing director said: 'There is growing adoption of energy-efficient data centre technologies like Dynamic Smart Cooling and blade servers. We believe these will take off among businesses in 2008 as more companies are investing in this area due to environmental awareness and the need to reduce energy costs.'
To add to the business opportunities presented by the eco-friendly IT movement, companies like HP, IBM and Cisco also have two major local government projects to look to boost local sales over the next 12 months. 2008 will mark the year when the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) finally announces the successful bidder for its Standard ICT Operating Environment (SOE) contract.HP and IBM are aligned to different consortiums that are in the running for the billion-dollar tender for outsourcing and managing the desktop systems of public sector agencies here.
'IT consolidation and standardisation is happening in a big way in Singapore. We are fortunate that the government is leading the way in South-east Asia by calling for the SOE tender for this purpose, to help the civil service manage complexity and cut cost,' HP's Ms Tan told BizIT.
Besides this mammoth tender, the IDA is also planning to build a new broadband highway to support Singapore for the next 25 to 30 years. The project, called Next-Gen NBN (Next Generation National Broadband Network), this month stepped into high gear with the release of the tender for laying the infrastructure to support the republic's broadband vision. Industry watchers have consistently pointed to FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) as the likely outcome, a scenario where high speed fiber-optic links will be used in homes and offices for high-speed Internet access. Twelve groups are now vying for the contract, which could come with a government subsidy of up to $750 million. Another tender to put in place the equipment for running the network will be called in the second quarter of next year. When combined, the two stages of Singapore's quest for higher Internet speeds will translate into a massive demand for equipment like switches and routers for distributing bandwidth.
'Government projects such as FTTH, Wireless@SG and SOE have a carry-over effect into the private sector as we see customers adopting new technologies to enhance productivity,' said Cisco's Mr Cheong.
