The Soft Pitch

I wanted to write about Avnet’s award for the “greening” of its data center, then I saw that one of our IT directors has written about it internally and he has provided a much better write up than I could – so this comes from Bruce Gorshe, IT Director – Data Center Operations.  The list of small and big things show, Kermit the Frog got it all wrong. It can be easy to be green, you just have to be a little bit innovative:

Green Computing, Energy Efficiency and the Data Center – Avnet won!

Avnet was selected as the winner of InfoWorld’s 2009 “Best Practices in Green Computing, Energy Efficiency and the Datacenter.”

Jennifer McConnell (Director, IT) accepted the award for Avnet at the “Storage Networking World” annual storage convention held in Scottsdale, Arizona. The award represented the cumulative efforts of multiple teams and demonstrates how Avnet is a leader in the Green IT space.

Jennifer McConnell Accepting SNW Award

The winning entry included these main points, specifically, Avnet:

• Consolidated more than 300 pieces of hardware by retiring or collapsing systems into larger vertically-scaled servers.
• Created a heavily virtualized environment with 24 VMware ESX hosts supporting 378 virtual guests
• Deployed 15 product AIX frames, representing 538 systems across only 39 physical systems.
• Installed StorageTek’s Virtual Storage Manager system to move a storage area network environment.
• Replaced older less efficient air conditioners with newer air conditioners, which were more power efficient.
• Re-foamed the ceiling of its datacenter roof and applied additional insulation.
• Installed “subzero” air flow leakage cubes and high-flow perforated tiles.
• Replaced 250 T12 lighting ballasts with more efficient T08 ballasts.
• Developed a script that would run on all desktop and laptop systems connected to the datacenter to automatically place idle systems in hibernation.

The gains from these changes included:

• Avoided spending more than $5 million to expand the power supply to its datacenter.
• Decreased power consumption by 44% per image through its vertical scaling and virtualization efforts. It also freed a considerable amount of valuable raised flooring space within Avnet’s datacenter. Avnet now has 5,000 square feet of available raised flooring, up from 1,000 square feet, allowing Avnet to avoid structural build-outs costs.
• The new room air conditioners are 20% more efficient.
• Re-foaming the datacenter ceiling and applying additional insulation lowered Avnet’s datacenter cooling costs by $7500 per year, and increased the longevity of the cooling systems and roof.
• The “subzero” air flow leakage cubes and high-flow perforated tiles helped improve air flow by 90%.
• The new power efficient lighting reduced related costs by 30%.
• By placing idle computers in hibernation during non-business hours, Avnet will save an estimated $150,000 annually. Also, it significantly reduced Avnet’s power consumption. A desktop PC consumes approximately 137 watts of electricity; however, by placing it in hibernation, it only consumes one watt.

You’ve been listening a lot to Al lately about sports, so now it’s my turn.  And if you’re like me, you may have an old analog cell phone sitting in a drawer somewhere and every time you open the drawer, you wonder what to do with it.  We have an answer – Avnet is partnering with the Arizona Technology Council to make it easy to recycle your old cell phones, monitors, laptops and other technology including servers and main frames.  (Main frames? Really? If you just happen to have one of those sitting around and don’t know what to do with it, I’d really like to hear your story!)

We’re not in this on our own – like many things we do, we’re partnering with some other green-conscious organizations in the Phoenix area: Data Doctors and Westech Recyclers.  You can drop off any used or unwanted computers or electronic equipment to recycle and refurbish. A portion of the donated equipment will be handled through the Tech Terra  Recycling or Reuse Alliance of the Arizona Technology Council and Westech Recyclers that supports educational programs and scholarships.

Here’s a link to the press release put out by the Council. 

And some basic facts:

When:

Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where:

Parking lot of Avnet Corporate Office, 2211 S. 47th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85034 (Hohokam Expressway and University Drive)

Parking lot of Avnet Global Solutions Center, 6700 W. Morelos Place, Chandler, AZ 85226 (I-10 and Loop 202)

OneNeck Corporate Headquarters, 5301 North Pima Road, Suite 100, Scottsdale, AZ, 85250 (Loop 101 and Chaparral)

Any Data Doctors location in Arizona. Data Doctors locations can be found at http://www.datadoctors.com/mkt/AZ.

What:

• Computer Equipment – PCs, laptops, CRT monitors, flat panel monitors, modems, switches, hubs and routers, storage devices, main frames, servers, power supplies, tape libraries, circuit boards, power cords, printers, wire and cabling, surplus metals, mice, keyboards, hard drives, floppy, DVD and CD drives, etc.
• Point of Sale Equipment – credit card machines, printers, scanners, etc.
• Telecom Equipment – telephones, cell phones, switches, CSU/DSU multiplexing equipment, phone systems, answering systems, etc.
• Printing Equipment – printers, fax machines and copiers, calculators, typewriters and printer cartridges
• Audio/Visual Equipment – stereos, radios, amplifiers, projectors, satellite and cable equipment, video equipment, video game equipment, surveillance equipment, cameras, etc.
• Electronic Components – capacitors, diodes, resistors, transistors and integrated circuits, etc.
• Miscellaneous Electronic Items – test equipment, lab equipment, medical equipment, cables and wire, connectors, ballasts, batteries, power strips, etc.
• Surplus Metals and Wire and Cable – aluminum, copper wire, etc.

As a follow-up to my post “Ahead of the Power Curve”  we won!  Check out the press release:

September 24, 2008 – Avnet, Inc. Named an Honoree in Computerworld’s Inaugural “Best Practices in Green IT” Awards Program

Avnet Recognized for Its Commitment to Improving Energy Efficiency in Its Data Center

PHOENIX — Global technology distributor Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) today announced that IDG’s Computerworld selected the company as an Honoree in the inaugural “Best Practices in Green IT” Awards Program. Computerworld’s “Best Practices in Green IT” Awards Program identifies and acknowledges excellence among early adopters and industry leaders in the green IT movement. Avnet received its award in the “Green IT in the Data Center” category based on its three-year project to create a more energy-efficient data center.  more

Last week we learned that Avnet has been named as a finalist in Computerworld’s Green IT awards for “Green IT in the Data Center.”  “Green IT in the Data Center.”

We’re in with some pretty big company (IBM and Unisys were also named finalists in our category). But just being named a finalist I think shows a recognition of some things we take very seriously in running our business.

It’s become very cool these days to tout everything “green,” and sometimes we all get ahead of ourselves. So, I’m realistic. Avnet is on a journey to become more of a green company, we’re not perfect, but we’re looking at everything from coffee cups in our break rooms (we switched from Styrofoam to paper and regular old mugs) to use of plastic water bottles (we recently stopped using them at our large corporate functions) to big things like energy conservation.

Our journey in the data center began in 2005, when we needed to expand. The IT team worked closely with our facilities management team. Some things we did to get ahead of the power consumption curve:

ü     Using virtualization we consolidated our servers and decreased power consumption per image by 44 percent.

ü     We replaced “down flow” air conditioners with new ones which were 20 percent more efficient.

ü     We added more insulation. For a data center located in Arizona, where temperatures can reach more than 115 degrees, this investment resulted in a more efficient building, lowered cooling costs by $7500 per year, and increased the longevity of cooling systems and the roof.

ü     We replaced 250 T12 lighting ballasts with more efficient T08 ballasts.  This reduced Avnet’s lighting costs by 30 percent.

Winners will be announced September 18^th at Computerworld’s Green IT Symposium.  I have my fingers crossed.