Just how much CO₂ is offset by virtualizing your servers? Oriel, an Aussie VMware partner, offers a calculator that explicitly shows the benefit to the planet for P-to-V conversions.

I stumbled across a reference to Oriel's site on WindowsITPro while researching channel vendors this past week, and I've been straddling the fence for posting this bit. It's now late on Saturday; I know deep down I won't be able to sleep tonight without sharing.

A bit of jiggling with the Flash-based tool yields roughly 13 to 1 as a baseline for consolidation numbers. Good so far? I haven't vetted Oriel's calculations. I'm not sure I really want to; on a tangentially connected point, the site includes relevant animation. Of cows and trees...

Who knew that each u of my rack was creating the equivalent of 12.5 tons of carbon dioxide? According to the calculator, assuming power consumption drawn by a standard 2 CPU server, 'virtualising' 45 of my enterprise servers would save the world 506 tons of emitted CO₂ per year.

This sounds nice, but recognizing how few of us can readily visualize a ton of CO₂, Oriel has thoughtfully included reference examples:

Taking 45 servers P-to-V yields 506 tons of CO₂ saved.

Oriel claims this is the equivalent of planting 2,228 trees.

Or offsetting the emissions of 113 cars.

Or offsetting the, er, emissions of 219 cows. Which brings me back to the calculator's explicit Flash animation. If you're still reading, you've probably reached the correct conclusion.

The calculator also notes that for my 45 server example, I would save an estimated $69K in server-related power costs and $205K in capital over time thanks to the consolidation from 45 to 5 servers. I assume all dollar figures are AUD, which yields $62.5K and $186K in USD... I'm a bit skeptical on the benefit figures, but the message is spot on.

Cow jokes aside, the marketing is clear; if you care about the environment, why don't you virtualize your IT environment? And save some cash in the long run while doing your part to save the planet.

Frankly, if Oriel's creativity is representative of international channel partners, I can understand VMware's recent push to expand and support the channel.

Please check out the calculator site here. A bit of advice -- you probably want to make sure your speakers are turned down.