IBM BladeCenter Systems Up to 30 Percent More Energy Efficient Than Comparable HP Blades

IBM BladeCenter Systems Up to 30 Percent More Energy Efficient Than Comparable HP Blades

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that its BladeCenter system uses up to 30 percent less energy than HP BladeSystem. As energy prices rise to nearly 15 cents per kilowatt hour in New York City, 21 cents per kilowatt hour in Tokyo and up to 23 cents per kilowatt hour in London, businesses can save hundreds, thousands or even millions of dollars in energy costs each year depending on the size of their datacenter.

Based on internal IBM testing, IBM’s AMD Opteron-based BladeCenter (LS21) within the BladeCenter system uses up to 30 percent less energy than the comparable HP AMD Opteron-based BladeSystem (BL465c) in the HP c-Class system when both systems are idle, and up to 18 percent less energy when both systems are running at full load. IBM’s Intel Xeon-based BladeCenter (HS21) within the BladeCenter system uses up to 26 percent less energy than the comparable HP Intel Xeon-based BladeSystem (BL460c) in the HP c-Class system when both systems are idle, and up to 13 percent less energy when both systems are running at full load.[2] Comparisons are based on systems using the same dual-core Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron microprocessors.

According to a 2006 report by the Robert Frances Group, across industry, the average utilization of most processors in the data center is between 15-20 percent.[3] Therefore, managing a server at its least productive state becomes critical to managing the issue of energy consumption in the datacenter. Key IBM innovations that set the BladeCenter architecture apart include: a shared power infrastructure with up to 90 percent energy efficient power supplies able to reach peak efficiency even under small load; and IBM Calibrated Vector Cooling technology to allow dual paths of air to each component to improve uptime and longevity while also reducing wasteful air movement.

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