Free tool measures how 'green' your data centre is: News roundup
A free tool to measure data centre energy efficiency; Citrix’s open cloud strategy with its CloudStack platform and Dell’s acquisition of Wyse are this week’s news highlights.
Free tool measures how “green” your data centre is
Data centre managers now have a free tool to measure and compare their progress in reducing energy consumption and in building an efficient and sustainable facility.
The online tool, launched by The Green Grid - the industry body for improving resource efficiency of data centres, allows IT pros to assess their data centre and IT portfolio against The Green Grid’s Data Centre Maturity Model (DCMM).
DCMM is a set of criteria for measuring progress towards greener and more sustainable data centre practices.
Users can measure various aspect of their data centre such as power, cooling, compute, storage and network. They can benchmark their current performance, determine their levels of maturity, and identify the strategy necessary to achieve greater energy efficiency.
The tool will enable data centres to demonstrate credible proof that they are leading the industry – and, perhaps, their rivals – in resource efficiency and sustainability,” said Harkeeret Singh, chair of The Green Grid’s Technical Work Group.
Citrix accelerates CloudStack strategy to promote open cloud adoption
Citrix Systems Inc. has submitted its cloud platform, CloudStack, to the Apache Software Foundation, the community for open source projects.
As the first step in this strategy, Citrix’s CloudStack 3 has been released under Apache License 2.0, and the CloudStack.org community has become part of the Apache Incubator program - the entry point for projects to become part of the open source community.
The move is aimed at accelerating the “broad adoption of open interoperable cloud computing”, the vendor said in a press release.
The proposed Apache CloudStack project will make it easier for customers of all types to deliver cloud services on a platform that is open and flexible, the vendor added.
“While other enterprise vendors will attempt to add cloud-like management layers to their existing proprietary data centre virtualisation products, the biggest winners in the cloud era will be clouds built on a platform that is designed from the ground up with a true Amazon-style architecture,” said Sameer Dholakia, group vice president and general manager of Cloud Platforms at Citrix.
Dell Acquires Wyse for desktop virtualisation push
Dell acquired thin client computing vendor Wyse technology Inc. on Monday to bolster its desktop virtualisation strategy.
The computer manufacturer said that the acquisition will help it expand its desktop virtualisation capabilities and drive its data centre offerings.
The deal will give Dell access to Wyse’s thin client products for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and its cloud technologies. Wyse is Dell’s third acquisition this year in the cloud and virtualisation space, following its previous purchases of SonicWALL Inc. in March and AppAssure in February.
The deal is subjected to customary conditions and its financial details were not disclosed. The acquisition is set to close in the second quarter of Dell’s fiscal year 2013.
