New 16- and 24-port rack-mountable models employ energy-saving techniques, providing savings of up to 40 percent, D-Link says.
Recognizing a growing desire among small and midsize
businesses to adopt environmentally conscious products, networking provider D-Link is expanding its line of Green Ethernet products
with a pair of higher-end rack-mountable switches.
D-Link's new DGS-1016D 16-port and DGS-1024D 24-port Gigabit switches,
rolled out in late February, expand the company's "Green" technology
lineup to meet the needs of businesses on the larger end of the SMB scale—those
with full data centers or even server closets. The company already offers the
DGS-2200 Series 5 and 8 port desktop switches, which are energy-efficient
switches targeted at the SOHO (small office/home office) market.
"There's a large awareness now among SMBs [of a need] to try to be friendly
to the environment," said Joe Melfi, D-Link's technical marketing manager.
"The last few years, there's been a lot of work on greening computers—now
it's about looking at how to make the network more conservative and
environmentally friendly."
D-Link's Green Ethernet technology conserves energy in two
ways. While traditional switches remain on and continue to consume energy when
computers are shut down or a port is left idle, the new switches can detect
when a system is turned off and will power down into standby mode for an idle
port.
This comes in handy for larger SMBs, which often buy switches that exceed
their current needs to accommodate future growth. Instead of sending power to
the idle ports, the new D-Link technology will shut down an individual port if
it senses it is not in use, Melfi said.
The second energy-saving technique is how the technology treats cables.
Instead of sending full power to a cable regardless of actual length, the new
D-Link green technology analyzes a cable's length and adjusts the power
consumption accordingly, officials said.
Together, the two approaches can offer considerable energy
savings. When used for 10 hours and then powered down for 14 hours over a
24-hour period, the switches—when connected via Ethernet cables—will provide up
to 40 percent and 27 percent cost savings respectively, Melfi said.
While SMBs are not necessarily knocking down doors to buy green technology
products, there is increased interest, according to Richard Hodges, president
and CEO of Green
IT, a consultancy focused on sustainable IT systems. "There is a
general level of awareness now that there are sustainability and environmental
issues associated with IT," Hodges said. "It's beginning to translate
into action in certain segments of the market with certain types of
individuals."
Hodges, like many other experts and consultants, said he believes
that interest will very shortly translate into action, with SMBs actively
making choices to buy energy-efficient products, both to be friendly to the
environment and to reduce costs. "Electricity is going to be much more
expensive, and we're moving into an environment where there are going to be
constraints on the consumption of carbon fuels," Hodges said. "It's
better to go out and be a leader rather than to wait and be told."
The D-Link Green Ethernet switches are available now, directly and through
the channel. The 16-port switch is priced at $229.99 while the 24-port option
costs $329.99.
