Vineyard virtualises with Microsoft in carbon neutral plan

Monte Vibiano, a wine and olive oil producer in Italy, is using Microsoft virtualisation technology in a bid to help it become carbon neutral.

The small agricultural company in Perugia cut the number of servers it uses from four to two, using Microsoft Hyper-V technology, which is included in the Windows Server 2008 software it uses.

It uses IBM xSeries 3650 servers, and Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint and Office Communications Server.

The move, conducted last month, has reduced its direct energy consumption on the devices by 38 percent, from 1.95 kw/H to 1.2 kw/H. It has also "significantly" cut cooling costs, according to IT manager Alessandro Giovanni.

The change is part of what he calls a "360 degree green revolution", which also involves the producer using electric cars at its grape and olive pressing plant, charged at 50 kW solar energy power points, and its tractors using biofuels. It wants to be carbon neutral by the end of the year.

Separately, using Microsoft Office Communications Server unified communications and videoconferencing, it has cut flights and is saving 25,000 (£21,200) per year on travel and accommodation.

With Lexmark, it has halved the number of printers it uses, reduced ink consumption and moved to double sided printing to cut paper use.

An Intermec RFID tag to be placed on each of its 13,000 trees this year is helping monitor all farming activity, to save water and reduce fertiliser use. It will use the Microsoft BizTalk mobile reader.

type="text/javascript">