HP Plays Key Role in Development of New Energy Efficient Ethernet Standard

Energy-saving HP E-Series switches first to ship with new IEEE standard, accelerating client adoption

PALO ALTO, Calif.,--

HP today announced it is the first to ship products based on a new energy-efficient Ethernet standard it helped develop that enables clients to reduce the energy consumption and operational costs of their IT equipment.

The IEEE Energy Efficient Ethernet standard (IEEE 802.3az) reduces power consumption of IT devices by automatically adjusting energy use based on actual network traffic between switches and other networked devices in real time.

The new HP E-Series zl modules are the first IEEE Energy Efficient Ethernet-enabled switches to automatically enter “sleep mode” as will connected EEE-devices, when no traffic is being transmitted. Through HP’s implementation of the standard, clients benefit from lower power consumption, both at the switch and the end-point device, reducing total cost of ownership by up to 51 percent.(1)

During low activity, Energy Efficient Ethernet-enabled products enter a “sleep mode” that uses less energy than idling at full power, but allows the connected devices to instantly re-engage when data transmission occurs. This enables significant power savings over traditional switches, which offer limited correlation between energy consumption and actual traffic flow.

HP: Leading the development of industry standards in networking

Since most networking activity occurs in bursts, network equipment is an ideal platform for an Energy Efficient Ethernet standards-based framework that automatically regulates power consumption, based on network traffic.

In the future, the IEEE Energy Efficient Ethernet standard will be used across multiple devices, including servers, laptops and wireless access points. This will further reduce energy consumption and, therefore, lower IT costs across the enterprise.

HP is a pioneer and collaborator in hundreds of industry working groups and forums. This ensures that HP Networking solutions are flexible and interoperable, enabling clients to garner increased business value from their IT infrastructure investments versus getting locked into proprietary solutions.

HP powers the industry’s leading researchers

The College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University is one of the top oceanographic research institutions in the United States because of the impact of the scientific contributions and leadership roles of its faculty in ocean- and climate-related programs. Their high-demand network environment warrants new technologies that increase network performance and density, while improving energy efficiency.

“HP’s new Ethernet switch enabled us to add more power to our core compute and storage services while reducing energy costs. It doubled our 10G capacity without system down time,” said Chuck Sears, manager, Research Computing, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University. “With HP’s new modules, our network infrastructure is more agile and provides increased bandwidth for our researchers, yet it requires less physical space and consumes less energy.”

Networking is a key component of HP Converged Infrastructure, which enables the Instant-On Enterprise. In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.


About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/.


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(1) “HP E5400 zl and E8200 zl Switch Series: Competitive Performance, Power Consumption and TCO Evaluation Versus Cisco Catalyst 3750-X and 4500 Series,” Tolly Group, November 2010.