VMware Teams With Microsoft, IBM, Equinix To Tackle Climate Change
‘Through this program, we will help drive VMware Cloud Partner data centers powered by 100 percent renewable energy sources by 2030,’ says VMware’s channel chief, Sandy Hogan.
VMware is striving to reduce the massive carbon footprint created by data centers by launching a new program today with the goal of making VMware’s cloud partners’ data centers be powered by 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.
Market-leading data center and cloud providers including Equinix, IBM and Microsoft are joining VMware’s initiative to battle climate change and the huge carbon emissions caused by powering data centers across the globe.
“Through this program, we will help drive VMware Cloud Partner data centers powered by 100 percent renewable energy sources by 2030. This initiative extends our reach and impact alongside our cloud partners,” said VMware’s global channel chief Sandy Hogan in an email to CRN. “It enables us to connect customers who have sustainability goals and are looking for low-carbon solutions with a VMware cloud provider who is committed to achieving zero carbon clouds through renewable energy-powered operations and energy-efficient data centers.”
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The VMware Zero Carbon Committed cloud partner initiative will accelerate the transition to zero carbon clouds through VMware Cloud Partner data centers. These verified VMware cloud partners aim to operate infrastructure, energy and carbon-efficient data centers based on VMware software defined data center technologies and have commitments to using renewable energy power.
Microsoft said it has committed to be carbon negative by 2030.
“Sustainability is front and center for our datacenter growth and operations,” said Microsoft’s Noelle Walsh, CVP of Cloud Operations + Innovation, in a statement. “We’ve made early progress and as part of this journey, we are proud to work with other forward-thinking partners like VMware and their Zero Carbon Committed Initiative to help drive change across the industry.”
Equinix is one of the largest data center providers and operators in the world with more than 220 data centers across five continents and an ecosystem of more than 10,000 companies. Equinix’s Steve Steinhilber said his company and VMware have been partnering for years to help enterprises with their digital transformations and now will collaborate “to doing our part to protect the planet.”
“Through this partnership with VMware, we can help our mutual customers and partners green their supply chain and reduce their environmental impact while building fast and more secure enterprise hybrid multicloud infrastructures,” said Steinhilber, vice president of business development at Equinix, in a statement.
Overall, VMware’s Zero Carbon Committed program will focus on three main initiatives: catalyze the transition to a zero-carbon Internet through VMware’s public cloud providers partnerships; help customers reach sustainability and decarbonization goals by connecting them with cloud providers that have aligned goals; and accelerate sustainable computing with VMware’s cloud infrastructure technology.
Other vendors that joined VMware’s initiative include Atea, OVHcloud and OVHcloud US.
“The challenge of achieving net zero carbon emissions will require us to come together as a global community to collaborate toward a sustainable future,” said Hogan, senior vice president of VMware’s worldwide partner and commercial organization.
Over time, VMware plans to raise awareness among other cloud providers about the importance to customers of sustainable cloud operations. In the long term, VMware hopes to develop programs to assist providers with launching renewable energy initiatives.