IBM has announced the launch of second phase of Project Big Green (PBG 2.0) in India. As part of PBG 2.0, IBM is introducing new products and services in the country to help enterprises build 'greener' technology infrastructures that can meet growing business requirements while realizing rapid financial benefits from such investments. The announcement comes one year after IBM launched Project Big Green and committed US$1 billion globally to deliver technologies that help clients dramatically increase the level of energy efficiency in their data centers.

With Project Big Green, IBM introduced unique offerings like Scalable Modular Data Center (SMDC) in the Indian market last year. With PBG 2.0, IBM is looking to further build up on the success that it has created with SMDCs and help clients make their IT greener.

According to IDC's latest report titled 'Assessment of Business Opportunity for Datacenter Services in India 2008', nearly 17 percent of Indian enterprises faced 'power and cooling' as a challenge in 2007; by 2009 nearly 22 percent of enterprises are expected to face the same.

To help clients address these challenges, IBM is today introducing modular, energy-efficient data center designs for the Indian market. Designed to power businesses ranging from large enterprises to small organizations, the new modular data centers can reduce energy consumption by as much as 50 percent. They include:

-- Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC) -- provides a fully functional data center in a pod-like form with a complete physical infrastructure including power and cooling systems and remote monitoring. The PMDC can be shipped and deployed into any environment and can support multiple technology vendors. Being highly mobile in nature, this solution is highly useful for: enterprises who may not have ready availability of real estate; large events; and for defense operations.

-- Enterprise Modular Data Center (EMDC) -- an enterprise class data center 'shrink-wrapped' and standardized from 5,000 square feet up to 20,000 square feet. By building in smaller, standardized modules, clients can scale the starting data center capacity by up to 12 times while matching their capital and operational costs to their IT needs over time. This approach allows the customers to defer up to 40 percent of the capital expense and 50 percent of the operational expense until the capacity is required

-- High Density Zone (HDZ) -- a modular system that provides incremental cooling and power capability in existing data centers that are tapped out of capacity. The HDZ system can be swapped into an existing data center without disrupting current operations and can provide up to 35 percent cost savings compared to retrofitting an existing data center

"As Indian organizations eye high growth in their business, they want to be more conscious and efficient in the manner they consume and pay for energy," said Steve Sams, vice-president, Global Site & Facilities Services, IBM Corporation. "With the launch of the second phase of Project Big Green, clients in India will have access to some of the most advanced green technologies and services for their data centers."

Having built and managed nearly 300,000 sq ft of data center space in the country already, IBM is confident of further increasing its marketshare with the launch of these new and innovative datacenter solutions.

Success with Project Big Green in India

IBM also announced the success it has had with Indian clients since the launch of Project Big Green. The company revealed it has signed over a dozen clients for its Scalable Modular Data Centers or SMDCs since the time it was introduced in India last year. Some of these clients are: Fiat India Automobiles,