HP tops ABI “Green Data Center” vendor matrix

ABI Research has placed HP at the top of a new “Green Data Centre” vendor matrix, which analyses vendors according to their “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria.

For the matrix, under “innovation,” ABI Research examined the firms’ carbon footprints, their regulatory compliance, recycling efforts, their efforts at “greening” internal operations, their use of video and telecommuting, and their membership and participation in environmental organizations.

Under “implementation,” ABI Research scrutinized the following criteria: the firms’ product portfolios, their product features, their intellectual property holdings, their certification achievements, and the planning and virtualization tools they use.

Hewlett-Packard received points for its innovative Dynamic Smart Cooling technology as well as for its homegrown power distribution system and its wide selection of low-power component choices for its customers. It trailed only IBM in intellectual property and green services offerings, and received extra points for its fine virtualization software that spans various product categories.

According to ABI Research vice president and research director Stan Schatt, “HP should be complimented for its extensive internal green efforts. While it has not received quite the publicity of IBM’s Big Green efforts, the company has perhaps the most extensive list of carbon goals of any vendor, with clear accountability each year on which goals have been met. Cisco’s focus on network switching and storage means that it cannot offer quite as broad a portfolio of products and services under one roof but must rely on vendor partners to fill technology gaps and channel partners to provide integration services. Still, Cisco joins HP at the top of any listing of vendors’ internal green efforts.”

IBM and Cisco claimed the second and third spots in the Green Data Centre matrix. IBM and Cisco both scored over 90% in the Implementation category.

“It is clear that “Big Blue” is now coloring itself very green – IBM has devoted a billion dollars a year to its green R&D efforts,” ABI said. “Its equipment has not scored as high on a number of third-party power consumption tests, but the caveat is that these tests were paid for by its competitors. Its Active Energy Manager software reveals the advantage of not having to integrate third-party products to fill product gaps. IBM’s intellectual property is unmatched by any vendor, although both HP and Cisco would certainly be in the top 5% of any list. The company’s chilled water cooling technology gives it a good green story to tell, and its services related to environmental controls are the most comprehensive of the top three vendors.”

Meanwhile, the research firm praised Cisco for “a number of very useful power consumption tools and design help for customers who want to green their data centers.”

“In addition to offering tools for virtualization, its VFrame Data Center software dynamically partitions, provisions, and assigns computing, network, and storage resources to different applications through an intelligent network fabric,” ABI said. “Cisco has had a number of its switches certified as green by Miercom Labs. The company argues that its Service Module architecture approach – in which applications are consolidated on a single switching platform rather than run on separate appliances – not only saves money but also results in much lower overall power consumption. Cisco’s focus on network switching and storage means that it cannot offer quite as broad a portfolio of products and services under one roof, but must rely on vendor partners to fill technology gaps and channel partners to provide integration services. The result is a slight disadvantage when it comes to tightly integrating green strategies across all product categories, something that HP and IBM are able to do very effectively.”

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Tags: ABI Research, Cisco, green data centres, HP, IBM

Category: Data centres, Green corporations