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IBM Introduces New Data Center Energy Management Software

Posted on: Monday, 19 May 2008, 12:00 CDT

At its annual IBM Pulse Conference in Orlando, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new software designed to help customers address the growing need to maximize energy efficiency and reduce costs associated with power and cooling. The software is part of IBM's Project Big Green initiative in which IBM has committed $1 billion per year to deliver technologies that help customers increase energy efficiency in their data centers and physical plants.

This latest version of IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM) software consolidates views of energy management information that enable optimization across data centers and facilities infrastructures. Monitoring capabilities offer customers the ability to understand energy usage to alert data center managers to potential energy-related problems and take preventive action. Historical trending and forecasting capabilities enable greater precision in existing environments and energy planning. Autonomic capabilities allow customers to set power and utilization thresholds to help control energy usage. The new software can also help customers handle physical constraints in the data center relating to space, power and cooling.

IBM is combining the new energy management software with partner solutions to provide customers with a comprehensive view of energy consumption across the enterprise -- not just in data centers but also in non-IT assets such as air conditioning equipment, power distribution units, lighting, and security systems.

According to a 2007 EPA research(1) report, U.S. energy consumption by servers and data centers is expected to nearly double in the next five years.

"Customers today are faced with an array of energy challenges such as increased power and cooling costs, exceeding power capacity, and an inability to monitor and plan for power consumption," said Al Zollar, General Manager, IBM Tivoli. "IBM's new software offers the tools needed to monitor and manage power usage. Together with our partners, we are able to expand on our data center management capabilities to include facility management that provides customers with a holistic view of energy consumption and its potential impact on their businesses."

Generally, more than 50 percent of the energy consumed by data centers is now utilized for power and cooling infrastructures. IBM's new software provides the foundation of efficient data center energy management going beyond a single vendor solution by providing an interface that can be used with partners for visibility into comprehensive power, thermal and environmental data.

By combining the ITM energy management software with partner solutions, customers can capture operating and performance data from data centers and non-IT assets and use this information to analyze events and alerts, correlate with end-user application performance, and associate with service levels to take preventive action that can result in lower energy consumption while helping to enhance the quality of IT services delivery.

As part of today's announcement, IBM will join forces with nine partners to offer IBM's IT management expertise with partner solutions that will allow customers to monitor and control energy consumption across their enterprise to help reduce power consumption and energy costs and better maintain service levels. The partners include:

 --  APC and TAC by Schneider Electric:  APC, an integrated critical power     and cooling services provider, and TAC, a building environment services     provider, are combining APC's InfraStruXure Central(R) and TAC building     management systems with ITM energy management software. This integration     will help administrators view, correlate and profile the dependencies of     business process and IT assets to the underlying physical infrastructure to     help manage risk and increase data center availability and energy     efficiency. --  Eaton Corporation: Integrated with ITM energy management software,     Eaton's Power Xpert(R) Software, Foreseer Class is a browser-based solution     that helps ease energy management by providing a clearer picture of energy     consumption and utilization at a component, device and system level. By     gathering, presenting and analyzing power usage data in detail, customers     can more easily identify opportunities for cost savings, downtime     prevention and energy efficiency. --  Emerson Network Power: By leveraging ITM energy management software     with Liebert SiteScan from Emerson Network Power, customers can enhance     their infrastructure management capabilities with alerts regarding energy-     related issues with facilities equipment, such as overheating or low power     on uninterruptible power supply batteries, as well as providing for     corrective or preventive actions to be taken to help optimize for energy     efficiency. --  Johnson Controls, Inc.:  ITM energy management software combined with     the energy monitoring and control features of Johnson Controls Metasys(R)     building management system is a web-enabled offering that allows customers     to make real-time decisions about whether to scale back data center power     consumption, make informed decisions about allocation of energy consuming     assets based on priority needs of the business, and make faster failover     decisions to help maintain uninterrupted performance of critical IT     services. --  Matrikon: MatrikonOPC interfaces enable raw data flow into ITM energy     management software from third party systems and building automation     devices such as heating and air conditioning, lighting and fire and     security alarms. --  OSIsoft: Leveraging ITM energy management software, the OSIsoft PI     System and library of over 480 interfaces deliver real-time and high     fidelity historical data visibility within the enterprise data center by     consolidating operational data control systems into a single view,     unlocking multi-vendor silos and enabling customers to capture and analyze     data from data centers as well as building automation systems. --  Siemens Building Technologies: By integrating building automation     systems with ITM energy management software, Siemens can help customers     translate related building systems and facility data into more cost-     effective site-wide operational efficiencies. Leveraging this information     effectively requires more than interfacing technologies and the Siemens     solution provides customers with broad facility sub-systems integration     experience to help them realize the financial and operational benefits of     total facility optimization. --  SynapSense Corporation: SynapSense sensor technology is combined with     ITM energy management software to offer customers real-time data center     monitoring and energy management capabilities for both the data center as     well as building facilities. By pairing ITM software with SynapSense     technology, customers can better identify inefficiencies in the data center     operations and drive real-time, corrective actions that can reduce energy     and help significantly improve resiliency. --  VMware: VMware's virtualization technology and ITM energy management     software work together to drive intelligent, dynamic consolidation of     customers' application workloads onto fewer servers, as well as power down     under-utilized servers. IBM and VMware's complementary technologies can     further optimize virtual data center power consumption while maintaining     service commitments to the business.      

"IBM is making a strategic move to apply its breadth of data center management capabilities to partner solutions that will help customers monitor energy consumption across IT and facility resources such air conditioning units and lighting," said Rich Ptak, co-founder and analyst at Ptak, Noel & Associates LLC. "By creating one cohesive view of energy consumption across the enterprise, customers will be able to use the new IBM Tivoli Monitoring energy management software to manage power usage and predict potential energy-related events. This allows staff to make the IT decisions and energy allocations necessary to maintain service levels. This is a giant step in energy management as it brings data center and facility management together to help increase energy efficient operation across the enterprise."

For information about IBM's data center energy management software, visit http://www-306.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/monitor-green-energy/.

(1) US EPA, August 2007

 Contact: Meredith Hannon IBM Media Relations merhannon@us.ibm.com 512-740-3285  

SOURCE: IBM

Source: MARKET WIRE

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