NTT America and Vigilent have jointly won the prestigious 2012 Green Enterprise IT (GEIT) Award presented by Uptime Institute.

The companies will be recognized in a joint award for facility product deployment, which highlights facility infrastructure products that significantly improve data center energy and resource efficiency. Using the Vigilent system to address its energy management, NTT Communications expects to reduce its electricity consumption in North America by over 7.6 million kWh and carbon emissions by 8.8 million lbs a year, saving the company a projected $630,000 annually in energy costs.

The GEIT Awards showcase organizations that pioneer energy-efficiency improvements in their IT and data center organizations. The award will be presented to Vigilent and NTT Communications at the seventh annual Uptime Institute Symposium in Santa Clara, California, taking place May 14-17, 2012 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The companies will present a case study about their award-winning project to the Symposium audience.

“Projects like this prove that the right technology can deliver both corporate sustainability and reduced energy costs,” said Andy Lawrence, program director of the Uptime Institute Symposium and research director of Eco-Efficient IT at the 451 Group.

NTT Communications, in collaboration with NTT Worldwide Telecommunications and NTT Facilities USA, used Vigilent technology to dramatically improve energy efficiency at its two largest North American data centers using dynamic, intelligent cooling optimization. This cooling optimization “virtualizes” cooling operations by dynamically shifting loads from inefficient and rarely deployed cooling units to more heavily provisioned cooling equipment for greater energy efficiency in real-time balance with changing IT loads. In addition to easily measurable carbon footprint reductions, the Vigilent system improved uptime control at both facilities. 

“NTT Communications is honored to be recognized for our innovative approach to reducing the amount of energy required to cool our data centers,” said Tarif Abboushi, vice president of data center infrastructure for NTT America. “Working with Vigilent, we brought real-time energy management to our two largest North American data centers with significant carbon emission and energy cost savings, as well as improving our uptime stability.” 

“It is rewarding to be cited as an innovator for work that we are already so proud of,” said Mark Housley, Vigilent CEO. “NTT is a great partner, and has shown by example that intelligent energy management built with powerful analytics can positively benefit the bottom line, corporate sustainability objectives, and the planet.”