Energy Efficient Data Networks
Do you know your ICT electricity bill?
Back in 2008, "Green ICT" was one of the top priorities listed by Gartner as a CIO 'care about' for the year ahead. By 2009, the emphasis shifted to "cost reduction" considerations but times had certainly changed.
There was a recognition of the energy consumed by IT networks and a drive to make those networks more efficient in the face of burgeoning energy costs.
One of the organisations leading this discussion was Nortel who were buoyed by extremely favourable independent bench test comparisons of their own products with the performance, resilience and energy efficiency of products from the leading data networking vendor.
In December 2009, Avaya acquired Nortel of course and has consequently added the former Nortel Enterprise Data Networking product set to its portfolio.
Potential cost savings of a converged data network
Avaya has continued to work with the Tolly Group, the same organisation previously used by Nortel, to bench test their products and to use these independent test results to promote their capabilities in a market dominated by one main player.
From the latest report, the Tolly Group has assessed energy consumption and projected costs for a converged LAN campus, data centre and WAN.
Key Headlines:
- Users can save as much as 43% on electricity costs when operating Avaya switches versus comparable Cisco devices.
- Avaya ERS8600 saves as much as 40% on power consumption versus comparable Catalyst 6500s, helping to reduce data centre operating costs.
- Avaya IP Phone 1140E uses upto 40% less energy than the comparable Cisco Unified IP Phone 7961G-GE
- Branch offices can save as much as 28% on power consumption with Avaya Secure Router versus Cisco ISR
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Read more (Tolly Test Report: Converged Data Network Solution, PDF)
Summary
Nortel won some big name contracts to lend credence to their performance and energy efficiency claims, such as Mumbai Airport and the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, the first all-IP Olympics.
Avaya has since fully adopted the Nortel Enterprise Data Networking portfolio.
In the interests of balance, it's worth noting that the various benchmark test results were often disputed, either directly by the market leader, or by a number of bloggers, who question whether the bench test set up bears any resemblance to the real world.
But it seems prudent to review the price, performance, resilience and energy costs of competing vendors, especially if energy efficiency and green IT is a hot issue for your business.