Rutronik invests in environmental protection

Rutronik has replaced the servers in its two redundant computer centres with the latest generation’s energy-saving models. The reason behind the change was to facilitate a major cut back in the energy consumption level for operation and air-conditioning, as well as reducing maintenance. The start-up of the new IBM system i Power 6+ server and the shutdown of the previous systems has seen the level of energy consumption for the two computer centres drop by 32 KWh to less than 60% of the previous power requirement. This is equivalent to a reduction in CO2 emissions of almost 165,400 kg per annum. This server replacement represents Rutronik’s second step on the way to “Green IT”. A year ago, the distributor’s new computer centre, with an innovative air-conditioning concept, went online: the so-called cold-aisle containment enabled Rutronik to significantly lower its energy consumption level for cooling the systems. “Air-conditioning is a decisive aspect”, explained Markus Ziegler, Head of IT at Rutronik. “As a general rule-of-thumb, just as much energy is used here as for operation of the IT systems. Optimising both factors was therefore the logical thing to do, and we can check for ourselves just how successful we were: our uninterruptible power system provides the amount of power consumption we actually need - and it fully matches all our expectations.”