Uptime Institute has announced that it is now accepting applications for its2011 Green Enterprise IT (GEIT) Awards in recognition of projects, ideas and products that significantly improve energy productivity and resource use in IT. The Institute’s highest honor, the GEIT Awards are open to applicants in all countries. Award winners will be celebrated and invited to present case studies of their cutting-edge innovations atUptime Institute Symposium in Santa Clara, CA on May 9-12, 2011.

"Entries for Uptime Institute’s GEIT Awards have been increasing at a rate of 50 percent per year, which reflects the growing number of ‘green’ advancements in the data center and IT sectors," said Andy Lawrence, Research Director for Eco-Efficient IT at The 451 Group (parent company of Uptime Institute) and Conference Director for Uptime Institute Symposium. "This year we’re encouraging even more organizations, based anywhere in the world and of any size, to enter applications for the GEIT Awards. Winners are given a platform to share effective ways to reduce energy consumption with their industry peers, as well as the opportunity to learn from other best-in-class winners."

Uptime Institute’s GEIT Awards, now in their fourth year, are judged by a committee of independent experts. Theaward application has been redesigned to facilitate collaboration among technical teams and allow administrative sections to be completed by marketing staff. In addition, to encourage energy efficiency and best practices in small and medium-sized data centers, the 2011 GEIT Awards include a new category: Innovation in a Smaller Data Center.

This year’s GEIT Award categories are:
  • Audacious Idea
  • Beyond the Data Center
  • Data Center Design
  • Innovation in a Smaller Data Center
  • Facilities Innovation
  • IT Innovation
  • Joint IT and Facilities Innovation
  • Outstanding Facilities Product in a User Deployment (joint vendor and data center client Award)
  • Outstanding IT Product in a User Deployment (joint vendor and data center client Award)
  • Outstanding Hosting, Colocation, Cloud or Managed Services
Organizations from 13 countries participated in last year’s awards program, and three continents were represented among the winners. Past winners of GEIT Awards include AOL, Hewlett-Packard, Helsingin Energia, Itaú, MassMutual Financial Group, Savvis, Schneider Electric, Sun Microsystems, the University of Notre Dame, the US House of Representatives and Verizon Wireless.

Completed applications must be submitted by 9am EST, February 18, 2011.

This year’s Uptime Institute Symposium is titled 'The Disrupted Data Center: Cloud, Cost, Capacity and Carbon,'and it features a special Day Three focus, 'The Disrupted Enterprise: Efficiency, Energy and Carbon.' Delegates to the event will have greater access to experts and analysts from Uptime Institute, The 451 Group and Tier1 Research than ever before. Registration will begin in December 2010. For more information, visithttp://symposium.uptimeinstitute.com/.