AOL Takes First Prize, Reducing Costs by Over $5 Million and Carbon Emissions by Nearly 20 Tons
NEW YORK, March 29, 2012 — Uptime Institute, a division of The 451 Group, today announced the winners of the Inaugural Server Roundup Contest. AOL roped in the prize for both the largest percentage of and most IT equipment removed. NBCUniversal rode in as runner up.
The Inaugural Uptime Institute Server Roundup was introduced in October 2011 as a contest to remove and recycle obsolete IT equipment. Participants were required to document the decommissioning of the machines, and provide data on power savings, and photos of the servers.
Decommissioning a single 1U rack server can result in $500 per year in energy savings, an additional $500 in operating system licenses, and $1,500 in hardware maintenance costs. The winners rounded up close to 10,000 servers.
"The intent of the Server Roundup is to encourage and recognize the removal of obsolete computing hardware, which in turn has a huge impact on overall energy use," said Matt Stansberry, Director of Content and Publications, Uptime Institute. "So much of the past several years' efforts around data center efficiency has focused on the facilities' infrastructure and PUE. This contest was specifically designed to engage the IT community to get serious about asset utilization and energy efficiency."
AOL sent 9,484 head to the stockyards, representing a 26% turnover in server assets across the company. The Roundup resulted in a total savings of $5.05 million from reduced utility costs, maintenance, and licensing costs, and includes cash in hand of $1.2 million from asset sales and reclamation. Environmental benefits were seen in the reduction of almost 20 tons of carbon emissions.
"AOL decided to pursue this contest due to both the prestige of Uptime Institute, whose programs are typically well-respected in the data center arena, and the fun associated with the program, since AOLers do have fun at work," said Brenda Rian, AOL's Senior Manager, Environmental Health & Safety. "AOL has been working on data center energy efficiency for a number of years, and this contest allowed us to pause and quantify the carbon footprint and utility savings of these ongoing efforts."
NBCUniversal's Infrastructure team culled 284 head. Those 284 servers removed represent approximately 7.4% of the total enterprise. Only about 3,800 physical servers remain in their herd.
"The concept behind the Roundup was unique. Taking a routine activity that most people never see and moving it to the forefront of the conversation is a great mechanism to inspire not only our team but healthy competition between like-minded organizations," said Saul Mankes, Director, Data Protection & Infrastructure Continuity NBCUniversal, MediaWorks. "As energy costs continue to rise, rationalizing the portfolio to achieve increased efficiencies has been critical to meeting the growing needs of the business. Through intense virtualization efforts and rigid reviews of infrastructure NBCUniversal has been able to retire over 60 tons of recycled hardware. As a result the company has been successful in lowering power consumption, support costs and increasing awareness of these challenges."
"Let's 'head 'em up, move 'em out, get those doggies rollin' for the next Roundup – Uptime Institute Server Roundup 2012," continued Stansberry. Contest rules are the same as last year. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 1st, 2013.
You can congratulate this year's cowpokes at AOL and NBCUniversal at the 2012 Uptime Institute Symposium in Santa Clara, CA, May 14-17. They'll be taking off their spurs and coming in off the trail to present and collect their rewards – genuine Texas rodeo belt buckles. Symposium will feature an awards ceremony, and presentations regarding the specific process, protocol, and benefits of their efforts.
2012 Uptime Institute Symposium Registration
Uptime Institute Symposium is the landmark annual data center industry conference on enhanced IT efficiency and productivity. To participate in Uptime Institute Symposium 2012: Digital Infrastructure Convergence you may register here. Early-bird pricing is available through March 31st. Free Modular Data Center Campus and Expo-only passes are available by clicking here.
About Uptime Institute
Uptime Institute provides independent thought leadership, certification, education and professional services for the global data center industry in over 50 countries. It serves all industry stakeholders, including enterprise and third-party owners and operators, manufacturers, service providers and engineers. Through Uptime Institute Professional Services, Uptime Institute delivers due diligence assessments and Certifications of site infrastructure and site management in accordance with the Tier and Operational Sustainability Standards.
Uptime Institute, a division of The 451 Group, is headquartered in New York, with offices in key locations, including San Francisco, Washington, DC, London, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Sao Paulo, Dubai, and Singapore. The 451 Group also owns 451 Research, a leading technology-industry syndicated research and data firm focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation.
About AOL: Having helped millions of Americans to get online, AOL Inc. is on a mission to inform, entertain and connect the world. The home of a world-class collection of premium brands, AOL creates original content that engages audiences on a local and global scale. We help marketers connect with these audiences through effective and engaging digital advertising solutions.
About NBCUniversal: NBCUniversal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. Comcast Corporation owns a controlling 51% interest in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake.
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Newsmaker Group for Uptime Institute
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