Teradata has launched a new server aimed at businesses looking to cut their datacentre carbon footprint.
The new Teradata 5500 server is claimed by the company to use 75 per cent less energy than previous models. It said that the new servers will co-exist with previous generations of its servers ensuring broad compatibility and retention of investment.
The 5500 server uses a dual core Intel Xeon 5100 chip with Extended Memory 64 technology which, according to Scot Gnau, chief development officer at Teradata, means the server can be much more efficient at data warehouse workloads compared to the scientific workload oriented Itanium processor-based servers used by some other data warehouse vendors.
"The efficiency of the 5500 server will provide customers with up to a 75 per cent reduction in electricity usage for the same capability data warehouse as compared to Teradata servers of three to five years ago," said Gnau. "That's enough kilowatt-hours saved by one typical system to power 40 homes for one year. In addition, the 5500 reduces the floor space requirement by approximately 66 per cent."
He said that by cutting energy use for the server, the knock-on effect was to cut cooling requirements by a similar ratio. It also change the design of the cabinet door to increase cooling efficiency by 30 per cent.
He also said the new server could fit in with customers' existing investments in Teradata servers as each server, with a different level of processing power could be connected to the same Teradata system and process a proportionate level of system workload.
According to analysts, the ability to integrate servers with different levels of technological advancement should prove beneficial.
"When IT executives are upgrading to new data warehouse servers, they shouldn't have to swap out all of their older servers to introduce the new technology," sadi Donald Feinberg, vice president and distinguish analyst at Gartner. "The ability of older servers to successfully integrate with new servers would be at the top of my list to consider before selecting a data warehousing vendor."
