So today I get a new report from the Tolly Group stating that the ShoreTel Unified Communications system is significantly more energy efficient than the Cisco Unified Communications Manager. ShoreTel apparently topped Cisco in using less energy to drive VoIP communications in specific large, medium and small enterprise-class scenarios.
This energy usage comparison reminded me of Nortel's "The 'Nortel' Tax Relief Plan", which aims to "stop paying the 'Cisco Energy Tax' and save up to 40%". Tony Rybczynski who works for Nortel and writes a TMCNet blog called The HyperConnected Enterprise sparked some controversy with some of his blog posts promoting the fact that Nortel is more efficient than Cisco. He even cites one customer that put a stop order on a $2 million dollar Cisco order once they did the energy efficiency calculations.
Is that what it's come down to? Instead of feature-to-feature comparisons where going to have to start comparing energy consumption? I'm not against the idea, I just find it kind of humorous that everyone is jumping on the enviro-green bandwagon.
I have to wonder if an IT manager, CTO, etc. might purchase a more efficient IP-PBX over a less efficient one that has many more features? Well, certainly in San Francisco and other uber-green areas that might be the case. Green trumps everything when you're a greenie - not that there's anything wrong with that.
I should point out that the IT Manager or CTO often not held accountable to what the electricity costs are. Many businesses see their electricity bills just as one of the costs of running their businesses. Other than instructing their users to turn off their radios, monitors, and computers at night, most businesses don't delve into purchasing energy efficient computer or phone equipment. That is changing due to high energy costs - albeit slowly.
What's missing from this ShoreTel energy comparison report is a comparison with Nortel, Avaya, and other IP-PBX players. Just who is the "king" of energy efficiency? Inquiring minds want to know.
So what are your thoughts on the IP-PBX Energy Wars? Do you care about efficiency or are features for important to you? Post a comment.
Lastly, the press release is included after the jump for your perusal...
Continue reading The IP-PBX Energy Wars......
Tags: Avaya, Cisco, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, efficiency, electricity, energy, IP-PBX, Nortel, ShoreTel, Tony Rybczynski, VoIP
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Comments on this Entry:
(hcirob on Aug 4, 2008 6:03 PM) There is a push for giing green and becoming greener, but this is not a bad thing. Just like cars, are you willing to give up a little in features or custimization in the name of going green? I just visited a client that is re-deploying a new IT infrastructure to over 150sites (thousands of users) utliizing small HP p2 systems that he's buying from a refurbishing dealer for $100/each. On these little boxes he's running ubuntu Linux, open office as the only office SW and he's totally elimiated his outlook/barracuda server stacks and pushed the entire enterprise on Gmail. The reulting savings in licensing, hardware+maintenance contracts, power consumption of the IT room + faster pc's with more processing power to meet Vista's demands has got to be huge accross all those sites. It does put some limitations into the mix that weren't there before (when the moon was the extent to which they'd go for users) but so what? Scale down, improve on your green profile- even if that menas limiting your avaialable options. It's a good thing. Also, you don't have to give up features, etc for a greener PBX- look at the Mitel product for example- one of the greenest running systems out there and state of the art when it comes to business solutions.
(Steve Kazan on Aug 5, 2008 12:23 AM) And the ShoreTel system, feature for feature is far, far superior to the Cisco system (having used both). It is too bad IT managers are too scared to buy anything but the top brand. Their users and budgets then have to suffer.
(Ward Mundy on Aug 5, 2008 3:28 PM) By all means check out the new leaner, greener Asterisk-compatible PBX in a Flash offerings at http://pbxinaflash.com/hardware/. The Everex gPC2 costs $199 with standby power ratings in the 2 watt range. And our new SSD model uses the world's first carbon-free processor with a maximum power rating of just 20 watts.
