Sustainable IT | Ted Samson » Linux, Windows duke it out over energy efficiency

August 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Linux, Windows duke it out over energy efficiency

TAGS: HP, IBM, Linux, Microsoft, Novell, Platforms

The battles for energy efficiency aren't just being fought by chipmakers, server and PC vendors, and other hardware companies out there. There's a similar battle heating up on the OS layer between Microsoft and Linux.

Linux appears to have an advantage at the moment: Companies are becoming increasingly open to adopting the platform both in the server room and on the desktop. Big-name vendors like IBM, HP, and Novell are giving the penguin a push in the datacenter, framing it as a flexible and energy-efficient platform. The fact that Linux offers greater virtualization opportunities than Windows (a sentiment recently expressed by the VMWare CTO Mendel Rosenblum) only strengthens the platform's green standing.

Microsoft isn't resting on its laurels, though. It plans to make power-management tools a central part of Windows Server 2008. Further, it's advancing its own virtualization strategy.

The Linux Foundation has spelled out plans to bring improved power management to the OS in an effort called the Green Linux Initiative. The workgroup's efforts could bring longer battery life to battery-powered mobile devices and lower operating costs in the server room.

Some of the projects the Linux Foundation envisions includes:

• Developing a tickless kernel, which enables the processor to sleep between tasks
  
• Creating power-aware applications and policies
  
• Boosting power management for USB peripherals
  
• Improving suspend and hibernate reliability
  
• Fixing bugs in userspace applications that cause unnecessary processor usage

"At the Linux Foundation, we've realized that while there have been many recent advances in Linux power management, there are still new, untapped ways to make Linux more green," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, in a written statement. "Our Green Linux initiative will leverage the power of our members ... to enhance these improvements. We expect Linux to be a leader in this area and for Linux customers, and the environment, to realize the gains brought about by our members' efforts."

One company heavily involved in the big green push is Big Blue. In conjunction with the Linux Foundation, IBM announced its own Big Green Linux initiative to help customers further integrate Linux into the enterprise so as to "to reduce costs and energy consumption by building cooler data centers," according to the company.

IBM is making noise about the energy-saving consolidation potential of Linux in conjunction with its own hardware, particularly its System z mainframes. Eating a healthy helping of its dogfood, IBM is consolidating approximately 3,900 of its own servers onto about 30 System z mainframes running Linux.

Joining IBM and the Linux Foundation in the green push is Novell, which is touting the greenery of its flavor of Linux. "With every release of our SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, Novell finds new ways to help customers reduce power consumption through improvements in policy-driven power management and system monitors for servers, along with better suspend functionality for laptops," said Roger Levy, senior vice president and general manager of Open Platform Solutions for Novell, in a written statement.

It doesn't end there: HP is also singing the praises of Linux, noting that it has a key role in next-generation datacenter strategy. At LinuxWorld earlier this month, Ann Livermore, executive vice president of the Technology Solutions Group within HP, talked up the penguin, according to an IDG News Service report. "The energy efficiency of all servers has become the issue 'every customer wants to talk about,' she said and applauded the new functionality added to the Linux kernel that improves energy efficiency by putting Linux systems into low-power states when there's a pause in computing."

Microsoft isn't blind to the high demand for more energy-efficient systems. The company went to great lengths to talk up the power management features of Vista and has green aspirations for the next version of Windows server. In a recent interview on SearchDataCenter.com, Stephen Berard, program manager of the Windows Platform Architecture team, detailed some of the future OS's power-management features.

Among them, he says that, "in Windows Server 2008, you can lock a processor in a state right off the bat. We also have finer-grade controls for thresholds that can address cases where the default settings don't fit what you want to do. The defaults that come out of the box are going to be good for the vast majority of people."

Posted by Ted Samson on August 28, 2007 03:00 AM

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