SAP, Bull Team on 'Bio Data Center'

Tired of hearing about "green" data centers? Does "bio data center" work any better? That's the term being used by European server vendor Bull, which said today that it will work with researchersfrom SAP AG to customize energy-efficient data center solutions using Bull hardware to run SAP's business software.    

Bull's R&D team and SAP Research will work together to "optimize transaction/watt ratios" in large-scale SAP environments, focusing on best practices for virtualization architectures. The effort also hopes to deliver energy management-enabled SAP software.

"This R&D project embodies our vision of the 'Bio Data Center', a new-generation data center that brings critical advances in quality of service, energy consumption, and flexibility to customers," said Michel Guillemet, Group R&D Director at Bull.

"This initiative, launched between two European-based global IT companies, demonstrates that Europe can act as a leading force for concrete innovation, addressing rising environmental concerns, while delivering to enterprises more efficient IT solutions," Guillemet said.

Bull and SAP Research have already begun working together on their joint R&D initiative, which they expect to last for an initial term of three years. The companies plan deliverables ranging from MIPS/watt benchmarks, optimized virtualized architectures, and energy management-enabled SAP software. Bull NovaScale and Escala servers will be used as the foundation for reference platforms and best practices guidance.

"We remain committed to developing solutions that help our customers better manage their businesses," said Lutz Heuser, vice president of SAP Research and chief development architect at SAP. "Our cooperation with Bull in e-energy research will help both companies make further progress in the area of Green IT. It will help us to extend our capabilities in providing business software that helps our customers reduce their energy consumption, while looking at significantly lowering our energy expenditure at the same time."