Server consolidation: Big Blue goes Big Green
Consolidating 3900 servers on 30 Linux mainframes based on IBM's own Z Series has helped IBM to cut its power bill considerably. Power consumption has dropped by up to 80 percent.
The company also anticipates savings in software and support for itself and customers. IBM committed itself to saving energy in May when it launched its Project Big Green, but data center consolidation actually started much earlier than this. IBM refers to data center consolidation starting in 1997 with just seven of an original total of 155 data centers now remaining. Of these seven the facilities in Poughkeepsie (New York), Southbury (Connecticut), Boulder (Colorado), Portsmouth (Great Britain), Osaka (Japan) and Sydney (Australia) are contributing to the consolidation process. IBM's Global Asset Recovery Service will be handling recycling of hardware made redundant by the project.
According to IBM sources, IBM data centers occupy a floor space of 750,000 square meters. Capacities are not dedicated entirely to internal use and customers can purchase CPU time.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.