Dell: “Green IT” Offers Opportunity to Freeze Government IT Energy Consumption and Boost Productivity

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--U.S. federal-agency leaders and policymakers can put the country on a path toward green growth and address climate change by driving energy-efficient IT into government operations, Dell Global Public-Sector President Paul Bell told government officials and news media in Washington today.

IT Key to Lowering Energy Use, Driving Productivity

• Most data centers have significant unused server capacity¹, systems that consume power but are not fully utilized.
• Technologies such as virtualization optimize server utilization, lowering energy use and boosting productivity.
• Using virtualization, Dell has avoided the need to build new facilities and is on track to save $52 Million in related costs by the end of 2009.²
• Use of energy-efficient servers and EPEAT-certified computers also make a dramatic impact on IT-related energy use.
• A government agency and Dell customer reports saving enough energy to power 7,330 homes for one year by deploying EPEAT-certified Dell Optiplex desktops.

An IT and Policy Framework for Government Energy Efficiency

Federal-agency leaders and policymakers can help freeze³ government energy consumption and drive significant cost savings by:

• Initiating a comprehensive assessment of the federal government’s server inventory by volume, mid-range, mainframe and age.
• Requiring that new federal data centers use the best-available energy-efficient IT.
• Mandating that existing federal data centers be converted to “green” facilities with full server utilization, virtualization and power and cooling capabilities within three years.
• Connecting federal data centers to intelligent utility networks or smart grids.

Mr. Bell said that efforts to modernize federal data centers should be complemented by policies that encourage IT energy efficiency in the private sector, such as accelerated depreciation for retrofitting or replacing IT that improves energy efficiency by at least 25 percent and energy-efficiency investments for Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs.

Quotes:

Paul Bell, president, Dell Global Public Sector Division

• Green IT can help freeze energy use in federal data centers while increasing efficiencies and productivity.
• Private-sector organizations have proven it’s possible to lower energy use and costs using Green IT, while driving productivity and competitiveness. The ARRA makes it possible – and a priority – for government to do the same.
• Policy reforms are needed to make government operations more efficient and to incentivize the private sector to do the same.

Kateri Callahan, president, Alliance to Save Energy

• Investing in technologies that save energy is a wise use of taxpayer dollars.
• By making that investment a priority, the U.S. government can improve productivity, drive environmental benefits and demonstrate a genuine commitment to environmental leadership.

Links

www.dell.com/earth

www.dell.com/funding

www.ase.org

www.epa.gov

www.thegreengrid.org

About Dell

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¹ Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency

² “A Model of Virtualization” Dell case study, October 2008

³ Consume More, Compute Less: Smart Policies Unleash Data Center Productivity, Dell Power Solutions, February 2009