I was delighted to hear today that my friends, David Wright (CEO) and David Driggers (CTO) at Verari Systems have been recognized for their great work on driving Data Center energy efficiency. For some time it has been apparent that the modular, containerized data center holds huge promise:

• Ability to deploy new capacity extremely rapidly
• Ability to deploy in sites unsuitable for a conventional data center
• Plug and play – add power and network capacity and switch on
• Extreme high density with containers stacked in areas with limited physical space
• Modular swap out to support technology refresh
• Reusable racking and M&E plant after refresh
• Efficient capital utilization – buy M&E capacity as it is needed

A number of vendors have recognized this and produced containerized offerings but Verari have really worked the space, taking it a stage further, developing a unique and patented vertical cooling technology that overcomes the limitations imposed by raised floors and hot and cold aisle separation. Here is what David Wright has to say:

“It is an extraordinary honor to be recognized for our green IT solutions by such an esteemed organization as the Uptime Institute, Verari’s innovative FOREST container is probably the best example of how eco-conscious data center environments can be created by combining the most energy efficient equipment with well designed facilities. Truly a ‘data center in a box’, FOREST is a green solution that is not only eco-friendly, but can dramatically lower power and cooling costs.” 

Verari’s FOREST Containers are innovative, self-contained, portable data centers that house the BladeRack 2 X-Series platforms in an industry standard form factor (40’ x 8.0’ x 9.5’). Over 2,000 servers or 13 Petabytes of storage capacity can be deployed at about 50% of the capital and operating expense of traditional brick-and-mortar data centers. Energy efficiency, as measured by DCiE, equals 90%, which leads the industry. FOREST Containers can be installed indoors or outdoors, in virtually any terrain and climate, and can accommodate other vendors’ equipment to support heterogeneous IT environments. FOREST Containers are architected for rapid deployment and are a natural fit for data center consolidation, migration, and disaster recovery projects.

Verari Systems®, a premier developer of independent blade-based computing and storage platforms for the data center with the highest density, availability, and energy efficiency in the market, today announced that it was selected as a winner in the Energy Efficient Products: Facilities category of the 2009 Green Enterprise IT (GEIT) Awards, presented by the Uptime Institute and co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Award winners were announced last night at a ceremony at Uptime Institute’s 4th Annual Institute Research Symposium: LEAN, CLEAN, and GREEN in New York City.

Verari Systems was selected as a winner for its innovation and leadership in driving sustainability initiatives and recognized for its second-generation FOREST Container solution based on Verari’s BladeRack 2 X-Series platforms with patented Vertical Cooling Technology.

“We congratulate and honor Verari Systems for its pioneering work in reducing energy consumption in its customer’s data centers,” said Kenneth G. Brill, founder and executive director of the Uptime Institute. “Verari’s successful initiatives serve as a great example to its industry peers of the realistic impact and feasibility of energy efficiency initiatives.” 

Well done Verari, it is nice to see real innovation and a different approach to the old hackneyed 20th Century data center being rewarded and recognized.