CeBIT 2008 - Previewing The Trends

Green IT Products

For months we've been hearing about nothing but "Green IT", and this won't change at CeBIT 2008 either. There will even be an area dedicated to this theme called the "Green IT Village" in Hall 9.

The TX 200 S4 model of Fujitsu-Siemens' new Primergy series.

For example, there will be a model office in "Green IT Village" that is meant to show how much energy certain devices use over the course of a normal workday. Even the IT hardware companies have been falling over themselves with announcements of energy efficient PCs and C02-free computing centres these past few months leading up to CeBIT. One of the few companies that have not only talked about Green IT but have let actual products follow its announcements is Fujitsu-Siemens. This company will also dominate the "Green IT Village" in Hall 9. After all, Fujitsu-Siemens is aiming to be "the first IT company to switch to energy efficient products across the board and offer them at prices in line with market requirements", as the company's CEO Bernd Bischoff proudly proclaimed in the run-up to CeBIT.

One of the products the company will be showing is its Zero-Watt monitor. If Fujitsu-Siemens have their way, this as-yet unnamed device will revolutionize the monitor industry. In this case, "Zero Watt" means that the display draws no power at all when in standby. A relay disconnects the monitor from the power circuit when there is no video signal present, with capacitors buffering enough power to enable the display to wake from standby. According to Fujitsu-Siemens VP Rajat Kakar, this technology will also find use in TVs in the near future. The first Zero-Watt monitors are expected to reach stores this summer.

At the "Green IT Village", Fujitsu-Siemens will also be taking the wraps off its new Primergy series of servers of which the company is especially proud where energy efficiency is concerned. The company claims to have created are "the most modern and economical server line in the entire industry". In an effort to reduce power consumption, the Primergy servers will use modern quad-core processors and 2.5" hard drives instead of conventional and more power hungry 3.5" models. In addition to new hardware, server admins will also be given a range of software tools to work with. For example, a fresh server management suite is meant to let system admins monitor power consumption in addition to the conventional remote maintenance tasks. Fujitsu-Siemens is also integrating a new self-diagnostic feature. The refreshed Primergy lineup will include the rack models RX600 S4, RX200 S4, RX300 S4, RX100 S5 as well as the tower versions TX150 S6, TX200 S4 and TX300 S4.

Check out the Zero-Watt Monitor in Hall 9 in the Green IT Village The Primergy servers can be found at Intel's stand in Pavilion 33 as well as in the Public Sector Parc in Hall 9.