Fordway customer gm2 wins 'green organisation of the year' award

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Issue Date: 22nd December 2008

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Warehousing and logistics company gm2 Logistics has won the British Computer Society's award for 'Green Organisation of the Year 2008' after implementing what the company's director for corporate responsibility Howard Browning described as a 'green and lean' IT strategy. A key component of this strategy was the deployment of a virtualised storage platform and disaster recovery solution by leading IT integrator Fordway Solutions.

The project has already won the European IT Excellence Award for SAN Deployment and the CNA - Data Centre Solution award, further highlighting the impressive results it has delivered.

Fordway worked with gm2 Services' IT team to install a Compellent storage area network (SAN) and VMware platform to virtualise the company's storage and server environment. The new installation has enabled gm2 to reduce both its data centre carbon footprint and energy consumption by a third.

This was the first time the prestigious BCS awards included a category recognising achievement in green IT and David Clarke, BCS chief executive, said: "The green aspirations shown are embedded throughout the operation of this company; they are trend setters for their industry."

"This award is a credit to Fordway, who helped us create an energy-efficient, highly sustainable data network," explained John Boyd, IT manager, gm2 Services. "We have a company-wide green initiative and this project has enabled us to make a substantial contribution by reducing our power consumption and hence our impact on the environment."

Richard Blanford, managing director of Fordway, comments: "We'd like to congratulate gm2's IT team on winning this prestigious award against strong competition from BT and IBM. It recognises their hard work and commitment in delivering an IT strategy that reduces both their costs and their carbon footprint.

"A green IT strategy does not have to be expensive, but can and should be the result of optimising a company's IT infrastructure. Every IT team should be able to convince their directors that it is worth 'going green' by showing the cost savings and business benefits that will be achieved."

The BCS IT Industry Awards, supported by Intellect and NCC, are the leading hallmark of success amongst practitioners today. The cross-industry awards form a central element to the BCS' professionalism in IT initiative and recognise, promote and acclaim excellence, professionalism, innovation and the outstanding achievements to which individuals and groups contribute.

ENDS

Photo caption
The attached photo shows (left to right) John Boyd, IT manager at gm2; Brian McKenna, editor of Computer Weekly magazine; Howard Browning, McNaughton, director for corporate responsibility; and Mark Mackridge from gm2 receiving the award from celebrity host and former MP Gyles Brandreth.

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