Uptime Institute, a division of The 451 Group, today announced the winners of the 2011 Green Enterprise IT (GEITHYPERLINK "http://symposium.uptimeinstitute.com/2011-geit-awards")HYPERLINK "http://symposium.uptimeinstitute.com/2011-geit-awards" Awards, which recognize pioneering advancements for significantly improved energy productivity in IT and data center operations. The recipients will be honored at the Uptime Institute Symposium in Santa Clara, California, on May 9-12, 2011, where they will be given the stage to share experiences and insights with industry peers through case-study presentations. The Uptime Institute Symposium is the most influential all-stakeholder thought-leadership conference serving the global data center industry.

The 2011 GEIT Awards winners are:

• Audacious Idea: Harris Corporation and Lee Technologies (a Schneider Electric Company)
• Beyond the Data Center: Tieto
• Data Center Design: Capgemini UK and Red Engineering Design
• Facilities Innovation: Kaiser Permanente
• Innovation in a Smaller Data Center Under 1,000 sq ft: University of Hertfordshire
• Innovation in a Smaller Data Center Over 1,000 sq ft: CEMEX
• IT Innovation: AOL
• Outstanding Facilities Product in a User Deployment: Opengate Data Systems and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
• Outstanding IT Product in a User Deployment: Viridity Software

“We received a record number of entries for the 2011 GEIT Awards from companies across the globe doing remarkable things to lead the charge in making the data center industry more efficient,” said Andy Lawrence, program director of the Uptime Institute Symposium and research director for Eco-Efficient IT, The 451 Group. “Uptime Institute’s GEIT Awards program educates the data center and IT industries on new initiatives to effectively reduce energy consumption by highlighting the cutting-edge achievements of large enterprises, as well as smaller organizations.”

Uptime Institute also announced the following 2011 GEIT Awards finalists: Akamai Technologies (Audacious Idea); KPMG (Beyond the Data Center); Brocade Communications Systems (Data Center Design); Yahoo! (Facilities Innovation); SynapSense and AT&T (Outstanding Facilities Product in a User Deployment); and HP Brasil and Bradesco (Outstanding IT Product in a User Deployment).

The 2011 GEIT Awards are being sponsored by i/o Data Centers and entries were thoroughly reviewed by a committee of independent judges. The GEIT Award winners’ case-study presentations are scheduled throughout the Symposium.

This year’s Symposium, themed The Disrupted Data Center: Cloud, Cost, Capacity and Carbon, will focus on strategies and best practices for anticipating and responding to disruptive changes such as cloud computing, virtualization, volatile demand and rapidly evolving modular architectures. Energy and carbon issues will be the special focus of Day Three of the Symposium, themed The Disrupted Enterprise: Efficiency, Energy and Carbon. The speaker lineup includes distinguished data center industry thought leaders from AOL, Deutsche Bank, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, SAP and more. In addition, Symposium Delegates can attend workshops, tutorials and sessions given by over 30 experts from Uptime Institute and analysts from The 451 Group and Tier1 Research.

Registration for Symposium, taking place at the Santa Clara Convention Center, is still open. Registrants will receive a Symposium Delegate pass to attend three full days of rich programming, as well as access to the Symposium Expoexhibition hall featuring products and services of leading solutions providers. A one-day pass can be purchased to attend The Disrupted Enterprise: Efficiency, Energy and Carbon on Thursday, May 12, and free Expo-Only passes are also available for people in the Bay Area. For more information, please visit http://symposium.uptimeinstitute.com/.