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IBM Announces $86M Green Data Center in Colorado

As part of its Project Big Green, IBM announced that it will construct an 80,000 square foot data center here using the latest in energy-efficient technologies. Read More

(Updated on July 24, 2024)

As part of its Project Big Green, IBM announced that it will construct an 80,000 square foot data center at its Boulder operations center that will use the latest in green technologies.

The new facility will bring the total size of the Boulder center to over 300,000 square feet, making it one of IBM’s largest data centers. It will incorporate high-density server and storage systems, virtualization technologies and energy-efficient cooling systems, and fits in with the company’s goal of doubling its data center capacity by 2010, without increasing its net energy use.

“This is about growth,” Rich Lechner, IBM’s vice president for IT optimization, told Techworld. “The reason we’re building these data centres is we continue to have growth in our clients’ demands. It’s about growing in an eco-friendly way.”

The new data center will feature many of the same technologies that IBM announced as part of Project Big Green in May, when it unveiled new energy efficient products and services along with a plan to sharply reduce data center energy consumption.

IBM plans to install high density computing systems utilizing virtualization technology, along with its Cool Blue portfolio of energy efficient power and cooling technologies. These technologies, in conjunction with the energy efficient design and construction, will allow IBM to reduce its overall carbon footprint compared to standard data centers, and lessen the impact to the environment.

“Selecting the Boulder site for data center expansion reinforces IBM’s commitment to Boulder and the state of Colorado,” said Larry Longseth, IBM’s senior state executive for Colorado. “Given our geographic location, existing infrastructure reliability history, suitable available building space, highly skilled support teams, and the fact Boulder is already home to one of the corporation’s premier data centers, this announcement just reaffirms IBM’s view of Boulder as one of its key strategic locations.”

Both the state of Colorado and the city of Boulder have awarded IBM incentive funding for the project, which is slated to begin service in April of 2008. The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade has awarded IBM $632,000 and will work with IBM to establish a training program for the new data center workforce, as well as additional IBM employees. Boulder’s City Manager, Frank Bruno, said the city had awarded IBM a $100,000 rebate through its business incentive program.

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