There’s been a lot of talk recently about “Green IT” and data center energy efficiency.  Treehugger dedicated a channel to environmentally friendly technology, and blogs like earth2tech, GreenBiz and InfoWorld’s Sustainable IT have all tackled the issue.

As they’ve pointed out, there are many reasons for companies to go green.  Most companies realize that energy consumption from information technology is a major contributor to global warming; others find that a green data center can save actual green dollars.  We thought a lot about both in creating the RipCode V4 appliance.

Here’s the problem: Until now, video transcoding happened via software running on general process servers.  With the explosion of transcode transactions, content providers are forced to add servers at an exponential rate just to keep up with the growth in online and mobile video, and those server farms consume a lot of energy and dollars!

Our solution: Consider that one RipCode V4 appliance replaces about 10-20 general purpose servers and uses a mere 165 watts of energy at full capacity, thereby creating substantial energy and cost savings.  It just makes sense.

To continue our efforts in the area of “Green IT,” RipCode has joined The Green Grid, which today announced a collaboration agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy.  The Green Grid, a global consortium of information technology companies and professionals seeking to lower the overall consumption of power in data centers around the globe, will  work with the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to collaborate and improve energy efficiency by educating IT managers on both the technical implementation of a greener data center and the associated financial benefits.  

Check out the RipCode web site for more details on our green transcoding technology.