Evaluating the Greenness of Network Equipment Vendors and Their Switches

Who Wins and Who Loses?

This vendor matrix evaluates the depth and breadth of network switching vendors' own internal green initiatives as well as the greenness of their switches. As one measure, ABI Research used a simple metric that rated capacity per power consumed. Far more important, though, was the evaluation of specific value-add green features that these switches offered. Other criteria used for evaluation included switch certification and testing results by independent third parties, power supply efficiency, and specific green network switching tools. Vendors were evaluated on the depth and breadth of their carbon footprint studies and subsequent quantifiable carbon footprint goals, regulatory compliance, recycling practices, internal green practices and initiatives, the use of video conferencing and telepresence, the encouragement of telecommuting, and environmental organization and participation. ABI Research believes this to be the most thorough evaluation of green network switching vendors and their products to date.

Nortel emerged as the company with the “greenest” switches, finishing first in the Implementation category. Its switches have been optimized for low power consumption. While Nortel’s power consumption tool is far from perfect, it does offer network managers a useful way of examining power consumption across several different vendors’ products. The company has responded to justifiable criticism from Cisco and other vendors by modifying its tool so that it no longer compares non-PoE-enabled switches with PoE-enabled switches. Nortel’s Canadian heritage is probably responsible to some extent for its extensive efforts to use recycled materials, design “green” considerations into its products, and offer recycling worldwide. Nortel has submitted its switches for green testing to different labs, including Tolly Labs and the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Testing Lab.

Cisco finished just behind Nortel in the Implementation category. Admittedly, Nortel’s green approach is not ideal for customers who need a switching platform as a services platform. In that situation, runner-up Cisco’s switches would be a better solution because they can help customers consolidate several different appliances. Even though Cisco’s switches do consume more energy, they also permit consolidation of several different appliances, each of which would have its own power draw. Cisco also received points for its Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and its ability to schedule power deliver to IP devices, a feature most other vendors are only now exploring. Cisco is able to shut off power to IP phones at night, for example, which saves considerable energy, and is taking steps to cut packaging material. Cisco has had its switches certified as green by Miercom Labs.

Cisco tied Hewlett-Packard in the Innovation category that measures how green a company is internally. Its commitment to telepresence, recycling, establishing and meeting its carbon footprint goals, and its recent efforts at “hoteling” employees to reduce square footage required all contributed to its score. Because of its strong showing in both the Innovation and Implementation categories, Cisco emerged as the overall winner of the Greenest enterprise wire line-switching vendor. The internal green efforts by Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and Nortel dwarf those of their competitors.

Rankings



After individual scores are established for Innovation and Implementation using the above criteria, an overall company score is established using the Root Mean Square (RMS) method:




The resulting overall scores are then ranked and used for percentile comparisons.

The RMS method, in comparison with a straight summation or average of individual innovation and implementation values, rewards companies for standout performance.

For example, using this method a company with an innovation score of 9 and an implementation score of 1 would score considerably higher than a company with a score of 5 in both areas, despite the mean score being the same. ABI Research believes this is appropriate as the goal of these matrices is to highlight those companies that stand out from the others.