SAP Data Centers Certified for Energy Efficiency by German Standards Organization

WALLDORF, Germany, April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Two SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) data centers in Germany have been certified as "energy efficient" by TUEV Rheinland, a German group that documents the safety and quality of business and technology systems to establish sustainability in social and industrial development. To date, only 10 data centers from various companies have received this certification. Out of those, the SAP data center in St. Leon-Rot, Germany, achieved the highest ratings in five of the six evaluation categories, setting new standards for the certificate.

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The SAP data centers were specifically recognized for the use of advanced technologies, which in 2009 saved roughly 55 million kilowatt hours/14,000 tons of CO2 emissions, equal to the annual energy consumption of 13,000 households. The SAP centers scored particularly high in the areas of quality assurance, management and climate control.

A large proportion of energy consumption in data centers is caused by the cooling of server systems. Using an architectural separation of hot and cold aisles, the SAP data centers control the cool air from outside to achieve an optimal temperature reduction. This helped significantly reduce consumption levels.  

The ecologically and financially sustainable operation of the SAP data centers was also enhanced by the consistent use of virtualization. While conventional data centers have an average server utilization rate of 10 percent, the SAP centers strive to use more than 60 percent. For example, instead of installing 2,500 individual servers, SAP shifted the processing load to 2,500 virtual servers operating on approximately 300 physical servers. In this way, the company was able to reduce the costs for hardware, space and energy consumption by more than 50 percent.

The certification by TUEV Rheinland is an important step for SAP toward achieving its sustainability goals. In 2009 SAP announced an aggressive commitment to reduce its total carbon emissions back to the levels of 2000 by 2020, cutting its emissions approximately in half from its year-2007 peak levels.

For more information, visit the Sustainability newsroom on sap.com. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

Media Contact: Evan Welsh, +1 (610) 661-8393, [email protected], EDT

SOURCE SAP AG