In late 2008, IBM opened up four new cloud computing companies, allowing universities, enterprises and governments test out their Web-based applications and services. The new centers are in Hanoi, Vietnam; Bangalore, India; Seoul, South Korea and Sao Paulo, Brazil. IBM now has a total of 13 global cloud computing centers.
Cloud computing is a relatively new technology that refers to a computing system in which tasks are assigned through a combination of connections, service and software over a network. This collective of connections is known as ‘the cloud’. Computing at this level allows users to sort through a vast amount of data. For example, Google is currently the forerunner of cloud computing due to its need to produce accurate and instant results for the millions of search queries it receives every day.
IBM launched Europe’s first cloud computing center in Dublin, Ireland. It also has centers in Johannesburg, South Africa and Beijing, China.
The new cloud computing facilities are just a part of IBM’s Project Big Green which is a $1 billion investment to increase the efficiency of IBM products. Project Big Green outlines a five-step approach for data centers that is designed to improve energy efficiency:
- Diagnose: This stage involves a complete and thorough assessment of all existing facilities. Evaluations will include energy consumption, virtual power management and thermal analytics.
- Virtualize: Wherever possible to virtualize It infrastructures and processors dedicated to special functions.
- Cool: To use liquid cooling solutions both inside and outside of data centers.
This second phase of Project Big Green is aimed at creating more advancements in energy efficiency throughout the globe by allowing data centers more flexible means of matching IT needs to cost-effective operations. This means significant changes for data operations. To meet these demands, IBM is gradually introducing modular, energy efficient data designs throughout the world. These new data centers can potentially reduce energy consumption by up to 50 percent.