US computer giant IBM has been recognised by the European Commission (EC) for its energy efficient data centres.

Based on the EU’s Code of Conduct for Data Centres, the EC has acknowledged the efforts of 27 IBM data centres, the largest portfolio of data centres belonging to a single company to honoured in this way.

The Code of Conduct aims to encourage data centre operators and owners to reduce energy consumption without reducing critical functions in a cost-effective way.

The performance of a data centre can be described in terms of power usage effectiveness (PUE) as an indicator of how efficiently a data centre uses its power. Last year, the Uptime Institute gave IBM a rating of 1.65 for average power usage compared with an industry average of 1.8.

The 27 data centres recognised by the EU make up 70% of IBM’s strategic outsourcing data centres and are spread across 15 European countries.

For further information:
www.ibm.com/services/siteandfacilities
re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/html/standby_initiative_data_centers.htm

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