Sun's bid to save the planet (or at least make data centers more efficient)

Sun Microsystems is amping up its green tech marketing this week with a program aimed at helping companies reduce the energy consumption in their data centers. (Think BIG companies.)

Its program, called Eco Innovation, is outlined in detail on the Sun Web site. Basically it includes a set of new products and new services intend to help companies Assess, Optimize and Virtualize their way to better efficiency. Some of these services are rebrandings of previous offerings to tweak their focus. But the point is, the right material is there to go greener with Sun equipment.

Sun also is trumpeting the success of its own data center overhaul, which incorporate new sites in the United States, India and the United Kingdom. Over the past 90 days, the company reports it has done the following:

• More than doubled its storage capacity while reducing the number of actual storage devices to 738 from 225
• Cut its servers by around half to 1,240
• Snagged almost $1 million in rebates and awards from Silicon Valley Power

So, how does Sun's activities rate compared to similar pushes that have been adopted by Hewlett-Packard and IBM?

I'll need to learn more about the individual services from all three of the big enterprise computing companies before I can make a qualified assessment (I need some briefings guys), but Sun gets props for having its eco-messaging right on the home page. Sure, sure, it's their launch week. They SHOULD have it there.

But as far as I'm concerned, green tech should get prominent space 24x7 right alongside all the other marketing speak on every tech company's home page. If I have to look to find the green message, perhaps there really isn't one to find. Put that in your pipe ...