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HP, Raritan, U.S. Congress Take Home Green IT Awards

<p>The winners of the Uptime Institute's Green&nbsp;Enterprise IT&nbsp;Awards range from data center intiatives from Hewlett Packard and the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as innovative projects from Microsoft, the city of Helsinki and others.</p>

Green IT got a moment to shine this week at a ceremony during the 2010 Uptime Institute Symposium, when eight organizations were presented with awards for their achievements in green IT over the past year.

Uptime's Green Enterprise IT (GEIT) Awards went to a wide range of groups for their efforts to improve the efficiency of data center operations.

There are eight award categories, including IT Innovation, Beyond the Data Center, Facilities Innovation, Best Facilities Product, Data Center Design, Best IT Product, Joint IT/Facilities Innovation, and the "Audacious Idea" award.

The winners of this year's awards run the gamut from established industry leaders like Hewlett Packard and Microsoft, to unexpected corners including the U.S. House of Representatives and the city of Helsinki, Finland.

Below are short profiles of some of the winning projects, courtesy of the Uptime Institute:

Data Center Design Award: A Cool Low Energy Approach to Sustainable Data Center Design -- HP’s Wynyard data center takes advantage of a cool climate to reduce the energy required for cooling by using a large quantity of fresh air supplied by axial fans through high-efficiency filters. The building is an energy-efficient and sustainable design, incorporating recycled materials and rainwater harvesting.

IT Innovation Award: Going Green at the U.S. House of Representatives -- Approximately four years ago, the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives initiated the Green the Capital program. The initiative's cornerstone encompassed activities that would dramatically reduce power consumption, while allowing for enhanced House data center services. The resulting project not only achieved its goal earlier than expected, it surpassed expectations by reducing energy consumption for Information Technology and cooling by 70 percent.

Best IT Product: Data Center Energy Efficiency Improvement -- Raritan undertook upgrading its data center, it seized the opportunity to create a green data center based on industry standards such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCIE) and Rack Cooling Index (RCI).

Audacious Idea: Containerization: An Evolution in Data Center Efficiency -- Microsoft's next-generation data center strategy aims to bring new levels of efficiency to data centers, including a PUE of 1.06 in recent tests.

Best Facilities Project Award: Orangeburg Data Center: Data Center Intelligent Cooling Controls -- Verizon Wireless implemented a project to provide an intelligent cooling control system that would reduce the electrical load of the cooling system by placing the redundant cooling components in a "Hot Stand By" mode that would seamlessly transition through utility interruptions and individual component failure without increasing risks to IT operations.

Beyond the Data Center: The World’s Most Eco-Efficient Computer Hall -- Helsignin Energia presented its new solution that utilizes the recovery of waste heat from the computers to heat nearby building and provide hot tap water in the City of Helsinki.

The full list of awards presented at the Uptime Institute Symposium is as follows:

• Audacious Idea: Microsoft, "Containerization: An Evolution in Data Center Efficiency"
• Beyond the Data Center: Helsingin Energia
• Data Center Design: Hewlett-Packard, for its Wynyard data center in England
• Facilities Innovation: Savvis
• IT Innovation: U.S. House of Representatives
• Joint IT/Facilities Innovation: Itau Unibanco, S.A.
• Outstanding Facilities Product: Verizon Wireless
• Outstanding IT Product: Raritan

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