Mar 3 2008
Bull, a leading European IT company, today joined the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing computer power consumption by 50 percent by 2010. Together, Bull and the other industry-leading members of the Initiative will work to increase the adoption of energy-efficient PCs and servers, and increase awareness and use of computer power management.
“A key element of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative is the commitment of manufacturers who agree to develop and bring to market innovative energy-efficient technology,” said Arne Josefsberg, general manager Infrastructure Services at Microsoft and the Microsoft representative on the Climate Savers Computing Board of Directors. “By joining the Initiative, Bull is demonstrating industry leadership and dedication to social responsibility and sustainable IT.”
“Our commitment to Climate Savers Computing is part of an overall approach aimed at combining sustainable development and competitiveness,” explained Philippe Miltin, Vice President, Bull Products and Systems. “There are significant challenges to overcome in both these areas, which is why we are determined – both for ourselves and for our customers – to use and to supply information technologies that are more open, more efficient and consume less energy.”
Bull is offering a pragmatic approach, drawing on its experience of complex architectures, its long-standing expertise in infrastructures that combine mainframes with open systems, and lessons learned in the construction of today’s ‘tera-architectures.’
Against this backdrop, Bull is offering with its Bio Data Center initiative an innovative approach to the Data Center, designed to optimize Data Center topology, to free-up additional power and increase flexibility. Bull also positively manages the heterogeneous nature of most Data Centers, and reduces their carbon footprint.
As a member of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, Bull has committed to making products and developing IT solutions that meet or exceed the efficiency standards set each year by the Initiative. Bull will also reduce energy consumption from a majority of its internally deployed computing equipment by:
- Pledging to purchase high-efficiency computer equipment that meets or exceeds Energy Star ratings;
- Optimizing existing computer systems to use power management capabilities, such as hibernation and sleep modes; and
- Ensuring in subsequent years they purchase computing equipment with increasing levels of efficiency.
In a typical server, 30 to 40 percent of the input power, nearly half the power coming from the outlet never reaches the processor, memory, disks or any other computing components. The wasted electricity is dispersed as heat and increases the cost of powering a computer, as well as the emission of greenhouse gases. In offices, homes and data centers, the added heat from inefficient computers can increase the demand on air conditioners and cooling systems, making the computing equipment even more expensive to run. Additional energy is often sacrificed because of poor power management settings.