Tech giant HP is the first company to ship products based on a new energy efficient Ethernet standard it helped develop.
According to Riaan Ferreira, HP Networking senior technical consultant, the IEEE Energy Efficient Ethernet standard (IEEE 802.3az) automatically reduces power consumption of IT devices.
He explains that when there is no network traffic, the switches immediately go into a sleep mode and only turn on once traffic is detected again. Ferreira notes that the technology is capable of reducing power consumption in the network by at least 30%.
The technology works by adjusting the energy use based on actual network traffic between switches and other networked devices.
SA gets green standard
Ferreira says HP has begun shipping the new energy efficient switches to SA from the beginning of this month. He adds that this is part of HP Networking's converged infrastructure strategy to drive energy efficient computing for large enterprises.
Ferreira expects that this standard will replace outdated networking standards, especially as many organisations are looking to cut power costs following hefty tariff increases by Eskom. He says companies need to change the way they manage power to reduce inefficient electricity wastage.
The HP E-Series zl modules are said to be the first IEEE energy efficient Ethernet switches to automatically enter sleep mode. According to HP, the reduced power consumption at the switch and end-point device will reduce total cost of ownership by 51%.
Power saving
According to HP, networking equipment can consume more than 13% of the energy needed to power IT systems. HP forecasts that the IEEE Energy Efficient Ethernet standard will be used across multiple devices, including servers, laptops and wireless access points.
According to the Tolly Test Report released last month, the HP chassis-based switches, the E5400 and E8200 consumed between 17% to 26% less power with the green standard.
Infonetics Research states that that the switch market, including carrier Ethernet switches grew 5% from the second quarter of 2010 to the third quarter, to achieve $3.3 billion in revenue worldwide.
The research firm adds that the overall carrier router and switch market is up 21% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2010 compared with the same period last year.
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