This is the final Servers Newsletter. As my editors have noted, you will continue receiving server-related information through the Data Center Alert newsletter that is mailed out on Tuesdays.

It has been great covering server-related news and I’m sad to say goodbye. But I think the transition illustrates what is going on in most data centers today. It’s no longer about isolated hardware. It’s about how hardware and technologies such as virtualization and utility computing all fit together. Look for the Data Center Alert newsletter to help bring all that information together for you in one place.

In the meantime, I thought it fitting to talk about how IBM is walking the walk when it comes to combining data center technologies and making the best use of hardware to create energy efficient, powerful computing platforms. Network World Senior Editor John Fontana, wrote a piece last week about how IBM plans to consolidate nearly 4,000 low-end servers onto mainframes running Linux. Read Fontana’s article here.

It’s an aggressive move for Big Blue, which laid out its Project Big Green initiative earlier this year. IBM claims its consolidation efforts will cut its operating costs by $250 million and will save enough energy to power a small town. In addition, Big Blue claims that by moving off of thousands of low-end systems and onto 30 System z mainframes, it will reduce the computing space it needs by 85%. Not bad.

IBM obviously will make big use of the mainframe’s power, security and virtualization capabilities to get the job done on fewer – albeit more powerful – boxes. And while the benefits will be big, the move from scale-out computing on low-end systems to a mainframe platform may be a hard sell to those not familiar with mainframe environments. It will be interesting, though, to see what kind of attention and interest IBM gets from those who may not have otherwise considered a mainframe.

Thanks so much for reading this newsletter and always feel free to stay in touch.