Is your server a Prius or a Range Rover Sport?

British Computer Manufacturer Offers Green Servers for Free

Published by Steve O'Donnell on Friday 24th October 2008, 01:27 | Related | Filed Under

My friend and colleague Peter Hopton dropped me a mail announcing a remarkable offer that shows that the sticker price of your server is dwarfed by the energy consumption cost. Peter tells me that his VeryPC Janus servers create the same CO2 as a Prius driving 10,000 miles whilst the most popular big brand model creates the same carbon footprint as a Range Rover Sport SUV!

Here is the VeryPC Press Release………

A British server manufacturer that has been working on increasing the efficiency of computer equipment for the last four years has made an announcement that they will be giving away servers to data centre customers in exchange for a percentage of the energy savings created. The company offering the servers is VeryPC, a computer manufacturer based in Sheffield who design and manufacture computer hardware from a strictly environmental perspective. The servers are from the company’s ‘Janus’ range of servers, a product range that is a finalist for this years’ national energy efficiency awards.

The offer, named the ‘Free Green Server Trade in Initiative’ is as it describes, a trade-in, the IT managers have 90 days to return the old servers for recycling. Having already built up a database of 150 approved servers, VeryPC will be comparing the energy savings of servers traded in for their efficient counterparts.

“It is the first time such an initiative has been done with servers, it puts our money where our mouth is and demonstrates the weight behind the total cost of ownership model of VeryPC’s Green equipment” said Peter Hopton, managing director of VeryPC.

The ‘approved servers for trade in’ list includes some servers up to 7 years old, and even the most efficient models on the market. Included in the list are the Fujitsu TX120, the Dell Energy Smart range and the Sun Microsystems Sun Fire servers; all claimed to have high efficiencies by their manufacturers. “We hope that by offering such a deal, we will dispel a lot of the greenwash that exists in the marketplace and help reduce global CO2 emissions” said VeryPC’s Sales Manager, Peter Phillips.

The operational CO2 emissions associated with the most popular normal server are similar to that of a 4×4 traveling 10,000KM per year, whereas the VeryPC equivalent is similar to a Prius traveling the same distance. But despite this comparison, VeryPC insist that the greener units offer similar computing power to brand new servers, with each server featuring 8 cores worth of Intel Xeon processors.

VeryPC will be proving the efficiency of its servers and other IT products at a number of live demonstrations, including at the Green IT Expo (Barbican) on the 4^th and 5^th of November 2008 and at the British Computer Society on the 18^th of November 2008.

The offer is available immediately, through Probrand and other VeryPC approved resellers, to find your nearest reseller contact VeryPC on 08456 170081.

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Ron Croce 2 months ago 1 point
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I couldn't agree more that in today’s energy-conscious climate, the sticker price of a server is almost laughable compared to what you are going to pay in energy costs over the life cycle of that server. And, while I find this "Free Green Server Trade in Initiative" interesting, I"m not sure it addresses the entire problem. The reason that businesses buy not-so-green servers in the first place is that they are powerful, reliable, and handle the workloads of their business. A nice balance between what VeryPC is doing, and the typical high performance servers, is to look at DC power distribution. DC power distribution is up to 50% more efficient than traditional AC power because of having only 2 conversions (AC to DC) and transformations (higher voltage to lower voltage) from the utility to the point-of-use at the server, compared to 5-7 in AC powered datacenters. Each conversion generates heat (that must be cooled), and by minimizing those steps you can increase your efficiency dramatically. Also, this increases reliability (significantly less physical equipment required for AC power), which in turn enables a denser data center. Not to mention, because of the significantly lower use of copper and other metals required for DC power distribution systems, the carbon footprint is minimized by 50% (www.validusdc.com)

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thehotaisle 2 months ago 1 point
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My understanding from Peter is that VeryPC Servers use less electricity but deliver the same performance as big brand servers, just that they are better designed.

I am very interested in DC power and agree that there can be significant advantages, I think some of your quoted numbers are incorrect. DC Data Centers have a single conversion AC -> DC, AC Data Centers have three conversions AC -> DC -> AC -> DC. Losses in these additional conversions vary by load factor but typically result in a 15% loss.

Some DC designs require huge quantities of copper for low voltage buss bars. High voltage systems can be more sparing of copper but develop lethal DC voltages that kill 100% of the time an operator hangs himself off the wires.

Too dangerous for my tastes.

I plan to deliver a special DC article shortly.

Steve

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