Reliability up, power use down at Rackforce with IBM Servers

HostReview.com
Tuesday, April 3, 2007; 12:21 AM

Kelowna, BC and Toronto, ON – Rackforce, a Kelowna, BC-based advanced infrastructure provider for hosting and applications, is using new quad-core servers from IBM to give its customers more processing power and reliability while reducing its electricity costs.

The new servers are three times faster than the servers Rackforce had been previously using, while using 30 percent less electricity. Rackforce has purchased 320 IBM System x servers in 2006 for $1.2 million, and expects to purchase 600 more this year.

“One of our highest costs is powering our data centres, and anything we can do to save electricity makes a big impact on costs,” said Tim Dufour, President of Rackforce. “Our first priority is to provide our customers with the best value and the most reliable hosting available, and the second is being as environmentally responsible and energy efficient as possible. Our new IBM quad-core servers help us achieve those priorities.”

Rackforce has a worldwide customer base and at any one time can host more than 500,000 active sessions. The data centres are located in the interior of British Columbia and are powered by clean and reliable hydro power. According to Rackforce, customers always have consistent access to their servers and don’t need to worry about earthquakes or other disruptive events causing the data centres to become unavailable.

About Rackforce

RackForce is one of the fastest growing advanced infrastructure providers in North America. From its three data centres, the company provides 24/7 dedicated servers, virtual private servers and collocation services to a world-wide customer base. Due to its unique location in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada it has access to highly reliable redundant hydro power feeds, a well educated work force and excellent world-class carrier networks.

About IBM

For more information about IBM, go to www.ibm.com

For further information, please contact: Leslie Plant, IBM Canada Ltd., laplant@ca.ibm.com, 416-478-9840 Brian Fry, Rackforce Networks Inc., bfry@rackforce.com, 250-717-2340