by Rebecca Walker — February 1, 2010 IBM has unveiled an exhibit at Disney’s Epcot Center that showcases both its Smarter Planet project, and its green data center operations.
The exhibit touts technology’s role in driving a more energy efficient future—long the focus of IBM’s forward-looking operations. IBM’s exhibit includes interactive kiosks showing how information technology touches nearly every facet of a more connected, more energy efficient future, from the smart grid to home energy management to traffic flow systems to water mapping and management.
The exhibit also features a computer game developed with Disney Imagineering called Runtime that, according to a press release, lets players “run, jump and dance through a timeline of IBM’s achievements in the history of computing.”
The other half of the exhibit is one of IBM’s scalable modular data centers (SMDCs), which in addition to being a hands-on element of the exhibit, is also running the show.
The SMDC is a data center that can be quickly built to specs for companies large or small, and can then be scaled to meet demand. Rather than build a data center that is intended to last for 15 years—and which as a result contains cooling, lighting and infrastructure for machines that won’t even be purchased for years to come—the shift to a scalable facility means companies can save big on upfront capital expense costs and on operating expenses, explains the company.
For more information, see the IBM Web site.
