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Green IT is now an important business strategy for small and midsize businesses (SMBs).
Companies are deploying environmentally friendly networking components to reduce their energy consumption, decrease their carbon footprints and recycle their networking gear more easily. With green networking equipment, SMBs are also driving down the cost of powering and cooling their infrastructures, making their networks more efficient and deploying advanced networking technologies.
To support SMBs in greening their networks, HP ProCurve focuses on three key areas: next-generation power and cooling architectures that improve utility cost structures, efficient infrastructures that fully utilize computing resources, and energy efficiency. HP ProCurve’s innovative networking solutions can reduce energy costs by as much as 45 percent, helping businesses succeed while being environmentally responsible.
Miercom Certified Green switches
For some SMBs, the first step in building a green network is installing energy-efficient switches. Several of the HP ProCurve switches have been Certified Green by Miercom, an independent testing lab. Miercom rigorously tests networking equipment for environmental sustainability, including power and energy efficiency, heat dissipation and cooling requirements. To meet Miercom's stringent Certified Green criteria, HP ProCurve equipment had to pass an audit of green best practices and rank in the top 30 percent of industry products for energy efficiency.
This month, Miercom tested and Certified Green the open standards-based HP ProCurve 1810G Switch Series and HP ProCurve 2520 Switch Series. Both of these series are designed for SMBs that want to add Layer 2 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet connectivity to their networks.
"ProCurve switches proved in testing and by analysis to afford customers a switching solution with superior value, effectiveness and energy efficiency," Miercom reported.
Saving energy and cutting costs
Miercom's green testing found that all of the models in the HP ProCurve 1810G Series and 2520 Series consume less power and cost less to run each year than the industry average for comparable switches.
The independent lab said that these switches' "standards based, power efficient design will help customers save on energy and improve ROI (return on investment)." Miercom's tests showed that 1810G-24 switches use 59 percent less power than the industry average and save up to 41 percent in annual energy costs.
Miercom also tested all four of the Power over Ethernet (PoE) switches in the HP ProCurve 2520 Series, which consists of 8-port and 24-port Fast Ethernet models and 8-port and 24-port Gigabit models. Miercom found the HP ProCurve 2520 switches "to be highly flexible, manageable, compact, quiet and energy efficient switching products." The lab's tests showed that the 2520 Series switches are 31 percent more energy efficient than comparable switches, and the Gigabit models save up to 30 percent in yearly energy costs.
Advanced power-saving features
Innovative design enables the energy efficiency of these switches. The 8-port and 24-port 1810G switches and the 8-port 2520 switches are cooled without fans, resulting in silent switches that use less power. The higher-port ProCurve 2520 models require fans, but are still designed to curb energy usage: They operate with intelligent variable-speed fans that use only as much power as necessary to cool the switch. Both series also include per-port LED shutoff features and automatic low-power-mode settings to further conserve energy.
Greening IT with HP ProCurve
Finding a solution that maximizes energy and network efficiencies while meeting an SMB's needs can be a daunting task. Whether an SMB is deploying a single energy-efficient switch or migrating to an entirely green network, the decision requires careful planning and consideration. HP ProCurve understands the needs of small and midsize businesses. It provides advanced network solutions and PoE switching through open-standards technology that enables secure, reliable high-performance networks. Through simplified infrastructure equipped to support cost-effective voice, video and data applications, HP ProCurve delivers quality of service, security, mobility and the reliability required for effective unified communications and collaboration.
» Learn how to reduce your environmental impact with HP ProCurve
» Take advantage of HP ProCurve's trade-in program
