IBM gives mainframes a green IT wrapper

TechRepublic's Jason Hiner reports that IBM plans to consolidate 4,000 small servers into 30 Linux mainframes.

According to Jason, each mainframe is the size of a refrigerator. The benefit: IBM can save more than $250 million over five years and cut floor space 85 percent.

Jason also notes that IBM is showing it can eat its own dog food, but it still needs to convince folks that mainframes are better than servers. IBM may have a hard sell on that point, but if it can wrap those old mainframes in a green technology wrapper it may have some success.