November 29th, 2006
IBM's disses HP's Dynamic Smart Cooling
Yesterday I posted about HP's more energy efficient Dynamic Smart Cooling solution for regulating air flow and temperature of computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units (pictured below) in datacenters. HP is currently testing out the system in its own data center and will start some pilots next year before the official release in Q3 of 2007. It's a good step forward for managing cooling facilities.
This morning I heard from IBM via email, responding to HP's cooling announcement. The prepared statement from James Gargan, vice president of System X and Cool Blue at IBM, goes as follows:
"HP has again put the lights out on its customers with its Lights Out data center strategy by previewing technologies that will not be available to customers for nearly a year when the dynamics of the data center have undoubtedly changed. There is nothing smart or dynamic about making customers wait a year for technologies they can get from IBM today. IBM has always been the leader in setting the standard for innovation in the data center. With our Cool Blue portfolio that is available today, clients can already manage energy consumption and cooling in the data center."
Gargan disses HP for preannouncing a product months in advance of shipment (which IBM and every other vendor does all the time) and claims to offer similar capabilities to HP's forthcoming Dynamic Smart Cooling. However, I didn't find a similar product or technology concept in IBM's Cool Blue portfolio of datacenter energy savers. Earlier this month IBM claimed that its BladeCenter system uses up to 30 percent less energy than HP's comparable BladeSystem, touting energy efficient power supplies and high-efficiency blowers for blade racks, and the second generation of PowerExecutive, IBM's energy management technology that allows the amount of power used by a single server or groups of servers to be capped.
But nothing about dynamic control of CRAC systems. I'm waiting to hear back from IBM to clear up this mystery…or bit of dissembling by IBM.
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
