When you are able to support multiple customers and provide them support 99.9%+ for a month, that is what matter in business. i5 Mainframe systems are not like other data centers where they have data centers made up of blades and such…

Good Job IBM, keep a low key, but keep it coming. Most of what we all use today is thanks to hard and smart working guys and gals of IBM everywhere.

Recycling and using recycled materials is merely being a responsible citizen, and shouldn’t be rewarded.

The minor mechanical steps they took such as having economizer cycles, and variable speed pumps and fans, aren’t technological advances one would expect of IBM. There’s nothing new here. It would be beneficial to know how many hours of operation were the economizers used during the past 9 months. Having variable speed fans doesn’t mean they’re actually able to use them or that they are saving energy because of them, the same holds true for the pumps. Let’s see some real numbers…

As for the wind turbine, what percentage of electricity compared to the overall building requirement does this represent? 5, 10, 15%. Furthermore, using a wind turbine reduces CO2 emissions–certainly a good thing, however, they still need to have that power available from the grid for times when wind is not generating electricity. The real question should be; how much did they reduce the demand kW in the design and engineering of this facility?

As one of the largest builders of data centers, IBM should be stepping out of the box with innovative designs. The facilities people need to get their heads out of the sand and do something different than what’s been done for the last 40 years. With IBM’s resources they could have and should have done much better than this. If this is the best they can do for themselves, it’s freighting to think they are likely repeating and touting these trivial improvements on other projects for themselves and their customers.

What’s more disappointing, the LEED program, or the fact that IBM considers this an accomplishment? This article sounds as though it’s been captured in part from a press release. If so, IBM should be embarrassed. Readers should not have the “wool pulled over their eyes,” believing this is some wonderful state-of-the-art accomplishment.

If the data center industry is going to police itself, it can, and must do better than this.

LEED 3.0 will have a specific section related to Data Centers, and it would be interesting to see whether this center would still qualify for certification. It would also be interesting to see actual MW numbers used and mechanical & electrical system innovations. Absorption chillers? Geothermal wells? Which generator type was selected given the deratings from elevation? Water-side economizer is very typical; how many hours are the water side economizer used per year? Variable frequency drives on pumps is also typical; what would be nice to see is the numbers behind energy use reduction.

There are a lot of mysteries to press releases like this that leave those in the know skeptical about the true commitment to LEED.