Viridity Software Launches to Offer Businesses New Approach for Running More Efficient, Less Expensive, Eco-Friendly Datacenters

BURLINGTON, Mass., Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Viridity Software today announced the official launch of the company, as well as its roadmap to deliver the industry's first application driven approach for data center energy management and asset optimization. Its unique methodology will be focused around tracing energy consumption through the application and IT equipment layer, performing a thorough analysis of the findings, and then generating an in-depth actionable report that includes comprehensive visual modeling. For the first time, data center management will be able to balance power, cooling, and utilization in order to save money, enhance service levels, and dramatically extend the life of the data center and its assets.

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Traditionally, power, cooling, and utilization have been monitored and managed separately by three primary groups in the organization - IT/IS management, facilities management and the C-suite (i.e., CIO, CFO and CEO). Each constituent dedicated to maximizing the data center and its assets, in addition to managing expense, but each coming at it from separate corners with very little, if any, inter-communications. Because of this, even the most sophisticated organizations are in a sense, running blind and scared - wondering how much headroom is left and whether or not they are living on borrowed time. Consequently, the data center is often identified as a cause for stagnation of growth, as customers believe they will shortly be out of power, cooling, or both. Or perhaps worse, significant equipment and application investments are made that cannot be accommodated in the data center because these resources are now in fact depleted.

From a number of standpoints, this paradigm has had a significant impact on operational and capital expenses (OpEx and CapEx) too. First, in virtually all data centers today, operational energy costs now far exceed capital expense. Second, the majority of today's data centers are vastly over-provisioned. Last, but certainly not least, it is not uncommon for enterprise organizations to build full data centers years ahead of need, in order to keep pace and avoid stalling business growth. Of course, this has a far-reaching effect outside the data center as well.

"Data is growing at a phenomenal rate - followed closely, by the IT infrastructure necessary to support it - applications, servers, storage, and the physical data center itself. Additional infrastructure consumes additional energy and consequently, energy costs climb. To prevent future energy shortages, utility companies build additional power plants for hundreds of millions - the cost of which ultimately gets passed back to the data center, as well as the common consumer," said Steve O'Donnell, Managing Director and Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). "Add to this, the fact that in today's economy, budgets are more constrained than ever. IT management is being forced to get the most out of current data center assets. While this makes great economic sense, it carries with it the risk of unintentionally overloading power streams and transient power loss." O'Donnell concluded, "Clearly, companies need to fully understand these dynamics in order to minimize risk, while making the right business and environmental decisions."

Viridity Software has the answer - a cross functional solution for understanding the connection between the physical infrastructure, IT equipment, and applications.

"Today, most organizations focus on just the physical infrastructure - or, how the power is delivered to the data center, as opposed to why it is being consumed. Viridity recognizes that there needs to be a clear connection between the business and the power consumption," said Mike Rowan, Founder and CTO of Viridity Software. "Viridity will provide customers with the ability to model power consumption through the IT layer, by tying applications to the specific IT equipment that supports them. Not only will the connections be mapped, but the relative business criticality of each application will be analyzed as well. The breadth and depth of this correlation is critical, as this is where virtually all of the data center's power demand is derived from. In fact, over 70% of the average data center's opportunity for optimization lies in the IT and application layer - while all other power consumption in the data center (such as cooling) is simply reactive to what happens here. Once organizations fully understand these connections, they can establish actionable strategies to run more efficient, highly-optimized, eco-friendly data centers."

In conjunction with the company launch, Viridity Software also introduced its Greenhouse Program, designed to allow an exclusive set of end user customers early access to its software in order to test, evaluate, and offer feedback as to the future direction of its feature and functionality set.

"We were interested in participating in Viridity's Greenhouse Program because power is indeed the highest operating cost in our data center, as well as a potential barrier to growth if it were to go unchecked," said Steven Peltzman, CIO, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). "The Viridity Software solution promises to provide not only the intelligence we require, but also immediately actionable tactical recommendations."

Other early participants in the program cite a number of reasons for taking part, including: to save money, balance power and cooling, get green, extend the life of the data center, place new equipment intelligently, identify orphaned equipment, assess impact of DC changes, enable charge-backs for power, as well as to better meet regulatory and corporate compliance mandates. For further information regarding Viridity's Greenhouse Program, please visit: www.viridity.com/company_contact.htm.

In December 2008, Viridity successfully completed its A-round and secured financing of over $7 million from distinguished investors Battery Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners. It continues to utilize this funding to accelerate product development and further strengthen its employee base.

About Viridity Software

Based in Burlington, MA, Viridity Software is a pioneer in data center energy management and asset optimization solutions. Its software-only, agent-less approach offers customers a cross functional methodology for understanding the connection between physical infrastructure, IT equipment, and applications. Once these connections are fully understood, actionable strategies are provided that enable customers to run more efficient, less expensive, highly optimized, eco-friendly datacenters. For further information, please visit: www.viridity.com, call: 781-425-2060, or email: info@viridity.com.

© 2009 Viridity Software, Inc. Viridity is a trademark of Viridity Software. All other brands and products names in this announcement may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holder.