Allstate Recognized for Green IT Efforts

In addition to helping its bottom line, efforts by Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate Insurance Co. to pare back energy usage are also drawing accolades as the company was named one Computerworld’s top green IT organizations.

While Allstate’s efforts to reduce energy consumption are truly enterprise-wide, the most obvious manifestation of their effort is their 65,000 square-foot datacenter in Rochelle, Ill.

The year-old facility, which received LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, was designed from the ground up to save energy. With electricity and cooling costs often consuming the majority of a data centers budget, Allstate relied on techniques ranging from server virtualization to a raised-floor design to trim energy usage. As a result, the datacenter consumes six megawatts annually, instead of 27 megawatts for comparable facility,

The opening of Rochelle facility is part of a larger efficiency initiative at Allstate. The company is consolidating all data center operations into two facilities, the Rochelle facility and a data center in Hudson, Ohio. At an event in July 2009 to mark the facility’s grand opening, Anthony Abbattista, VP of technology solutions for Allstate told Insurance Networking News many of the lessons learned in the conception and construction of the Rochelle facility can be readily applied as retrofits are made at the Hudson facility.

Abbattista also noted the facility came in on budget and the savings spawned by the efficiency measures will buoy the company’s bottom line and offer it a competitive advantage over competitors operating comparatively inefficient data centers.

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