IBM has expanded its Zodiac consultancy service with
tools to
measure a firm's IT carbon footprint.
The Zodiac service uses an IBM database to establish the total
power consumption and carbon footprint of a company's server banks
across all platforms. It incorporates carbon footprint statistics
to enable users to improve datacentre efficiency and
offset carbon emissions.
The data provided by the carbon footprint evaluation is used by
IBM to determine a strategy for
reducing power
consumption and environmental impact. Typically, this will
entail a process of server consolidation, ensuring that hardware is
being run close to full capacity and at maximum efficiency, IBM
said.
The function has been used to retrospectively analyse the IT
carbon footprints of previous IBM Zodiac consultancy projects. One
was found to have cut a department's annual carbon footprint by 156
tonnes of CO2 - an amount that would have required 516
trees to offset.
IBM vice-president Dave Kay said, "Energy consumption has become
one of the biggest business overheads and companies must take it
seriously."
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IBM standardises energy efficiency measurement >>
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