Johannesburg — Two SAP (NYSE: SAP) data centres in Germany have been certified as “energy efficient” by TÜV Rheinland, a German group that documents the safety and quality of business and technology systems to establish sustainability in social and industrial development.
To date, only 10 data centres from various companies have received this certification. Out of those, the SAP data centre in St Leon-Rot, Germany, achieved the highest ratings in five of the six evaluation categories, setting new standards for the certificate.
The SAP data centres were specifically recognised for the use of advanced technologies, which in 2009 saved roughly 55 million kilowatt hours/14 000 tons of CO2 emissions, equal to the annual energy consumption of 13 000 households. The SAP centres scored particularly high in the areas of quality assurance, management and climate control.
Lynnette Shaw, Solution Manager Sustainability at SAP Africa, says: “The above achievement is very important to SAP’s strategy as an exemplar in terms of sustainability. As SAP customers account for one sixth of the world’s carbon emissions, it is also important to be an enabler. Through the use the SAP Carbon Impact Solution, SAP was able to quickly determine its 2009 emissions, rebase its carbon footprint and was able to the report on its carbon footprint months earlier than was previously possible. Furthermore, SAP has been named in the Corporate Knights Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations list for the sixth year in a row, and for the third consecutive year has been named as the leader in the software sector of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI), as well as the FTSE4Good index.”
A large proportion of energy consumption in data centres is caused by the cooling of server systems. Using an architectural separation of hot and cold aisles, the SAP data centres control the cool air from outside to achieve an optimal temperature reduction. This helped significantly reduce consumption levels.
The ecologically and financially sustainable operation of the SAP data centres was also enhanced by the consistent use of virtualisation. While conventional data centres have an average server utilisation rate of 10%, the SAP centres strive to use more than 60%. For example, instead of installing 2 500 individual servers, SAP shifted the processing load to 2 500 virtual servers operating on approximately 300 physical servers. In this way, the company was able to reduce the costs for hardware, space and energy consumption by more than 50%.
“With the introduction of the new SAP Business Objects Sustainability Performance Management Solutions, SAP can now more easily set its sustainability goals and objectives, measure and communicate performance and reduce data collection costs and errors,” added Shaw.
The certification by TÜV Rheinland is an important step for SAP toward achieving its sustainability goals. In 2009, SAP announced an aggressive commitment to reduce its total carbon emissions back to the levels of 2000 by 2020, cutting its emissions approximately in half from its year-2007 peak levels.
For more information, visit the Sustainability newsroom on sap.com. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.
SAP
SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software (*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 95 000 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol “SAP”. For more information, visit www.sap.com.
(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, and related applications.
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “forecast”, “intend”, “may”, “plan”, “project”, “predict”, “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the US. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
Copyright © 2010 SAP AG. All rights reserved.
SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serve informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.
Note to editors:
To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you also can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV. No registration is required. To preview and request broadcast-standard video digitally or by tape, log on to www.thenewsmarket.com/sap, where registration and video is free to the media.
| Editorial contacts | ||||||||||
|
