IBM Opens Cloud-Ready, Energy-Efficient Data Center (
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IBM is opening a data center
that officials say offers customers a way to improve their IT operations while
driving down capital and operational costs.
The new facility, in Raleigh, N.C., dovetails with IBM's
larger Smarter Planet initiative, having been built with such new computing
models as cloud computing in mind, in a modular fashion that can quickly and
easily be scaled, and with intelligent and energy-efficient features that help
drive down operating costs, according to company officials.
"It is more interconnected and more intelligent than the
data centers we opened even a few years ago," Joe Dzaluk, vice president
of infrastructure for IBM's Server and
Technology Group, said in an interview.
The data center, built in a renovated warehouse on IBM's
Research Triangle Park campus, was officially opened Feb. 4, though the tech
company already has been moving clients and running operations from the
facility.
The data center currently is using about 60,000 square feet of
raised floor space consuming 6 megawatts of power, with the capacity to grow to
100,000 feet and 15 megawatts, Dzaluk said. At full capacity, the facility will
be able to handle the computing needs of 40 to 50 clients, he said.
The key for IBM is the
technologies being used inside the facility and the modular way the data center
is being developed, according to Dzaluk and Steve Sams, vice president of Site
and Facilities Services for IBM.
As more customers come in and bring with them their various
computing needs, Dzaluk said he expects that essentially every type of IBM
system—from its iDataPlex
server arrays and System z mainframes to its Power and System x servers,
along with storage boxes—will be deployed.
The facility also will support cloud computing, which relies
heavily on virtualization and other such technologies and helps reduce hardware
capital and operational costs. IBM recently
announced several cloud computing offerings, including Smart Business
Development and Test on the IBM Cloud and
Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud,
which can cut a company's infrastructure TCO
by as much as 40 percent.
Such cloud computing capabilities enable clients to reduce
hardware resources by as much as 70 percent, according to IBM.
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