NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Uptime Institute, a division of The 451 Group, today announced that submissions have opened for its Second Annual Server Roundup Contest, which was created to encourage decreased energy usage in data centers. Last year's first place winner, AOL, rounded up close to 10,000 servers and saved its organization over $5 million.

"The intent of the Server Roundup is to encourage and recognize the removal of obsolete computing hardware, which in turn has a huge impact on overall data center energy use," said Matt Stansberry, Director of Content and Publications, Uptime Institute. "This contest is designed to engage the IT community to get serious about asset utilization and energy efficiency."

The Uptime Institute Server Roundup was introduced in Oct. 2011 as a contest to remove and recycle obsolete IT equipment. Participants were required to document the decommissioning of the machines and provide data on power savings as well as photos of the servers. An overview of AOL's submission and cost savings can be found here.

Decommissioning a single 1U rack server can result in a savings of $500 per year in energy costs, an additional $500 in operating system licenses, and $1,500 in hardware maintenance costs.

Comments from the 2011 Winners:

"AOL decided to pursue this contest due to both the prestige of Uptime Institute, whose programs are typically well-respected in the data center arena, and the fun associated with the program, since AOLers do have fun at work," said Brenda Rian, AOL's Senior Manager, Environmental Health & Safety. "AOL has been working on data center energy efficiency for a number of years, and this contest allowed us to pause and quantify the carbon footprint and utility savings of these ongoing efforts."

NBCUniversal won the category for highest percentage of servers removed. The media giant's data center infrastructure team culled around 3,000 servers.

"The concept behind the Roundup was unique. Taking a routine activity that most people never see and moving it to the forefront of the conversation is a great mechanism to inspire not only our team but healthy competition between like-minded organizations," said Saul Mankes, Director, Data Protection & Infrastructure Continuity, NBCUniversal, MediaWorks. "As energy costs continue to rise, rationalizing the portfolio to achieve increased efficiencies has been critical to meeting the growing needs of the business. Through intense virtualization efforts and rigid reviews of infrastructure, NBCUniversal has been able to retire over 60 tons of recycled hardware. As a result, the company has been successful in lowering power consumption and support costs and increasing awareness of these challenges."

Winners in two categories (Most IT Equipment Removed, Largest Percentage of IT Equipment Removed) will receive commemorative rodeo belt buckles and a dedicated presentation slot at Uptime Institute Symposium, May 2013, in Santa Clara, CA. The 2012 Server Roundup Contest is open from Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 2012. Deadline for submission of final materials is Feb. 1, 2013. For complete contest rules, please visit http://bit.ly/QxrARa.

About Uptime Institute:

Uptime Institute provides independent thought leadership, certification, education and professional services for the global data center industry in more than 50 countries. It serves all industry stakeholders, including enterprise and third-party owners and operators, manufacturers, service providers and engineers. Through Uptime Institute Professional Services, Uptime Institute delivers due diligence assessments and Certifications of site infrastructure and site management in accordance with the Tier and Operational Sustainability Standards.

Uptime Institute, a division of The 451 Group, is headquartered in New York, with offices in key locations, including San Francisco, Washington DC, London, Boston, Seattle, Denver, Sao Paulo, Dubai and Singapore. The 451 Group also owns 451 Research, a leading technology-industry syndicated research and data firm focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation.

Media Contact:
Newsmaker Group, Public Relations for Uptime Institute
Jennifer Fugel
jfugel@newsmakergroup.com
(845) 657-4202

Uptime Contact:
Matt Stansberry
Uptime Institute Director of Content and Publications
mstansberry@uptimeinstitute.com
(330) 620-5293

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SOURCE Uptime Institute

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