Brocade has embarked on a new initiative to bring the message of energy efficiency to the public. The networked storage solutions provider told journalists this morning at a press conference that it will be sponsoring Singapore’s professional adventurer Khoo Swee Chiow in his attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the World’s Longest Journey on Skates.
Khoo, who is well known for his scale up Mount Everest in 1998 and holding the existing Guinness World Record for the Longest Scuba Dive in a Controlled Environment, will attempt to skate from Shenzhen, China and travel through major Asia cities in Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam before finishing his trip in Singapore.
Brocade’s Vice President for Asia Pacific and Japan, Deb Dutta said that Shenzhen was hand picked as the starting point because that is where Brocade’s manufacturing plant is situated.
The expedition, which will take approximately 100 days, will kick off on October 16 2007. Khoo said he intends to break the existing record of 4,175km with his intended 6,000km.
During his journey, Khoo will appear in events that will be organized by sponsors in select cities to spread the awareness of reducing energy consumption. His time in China will also be documented by a group of local Singaporean students as part of their school assignment thus raising awareness amongst the youth.
“With natural resources depleting rapidly across the globe, energy-conservation has never been more crucial. In fact, it has become increasingly necessary for someone to go the extra mile to draw attention to the seriousness of the matter,” said Khoo.
“With the support of Brocade, I will embark on this expedition to highlight the critical need for each of us to strive to become more environmentally-conscious.”
According to Brocade, these attempts to raise awareness on the importance of reducing energy consumption align well with its green initiatives. The San Jose, California based organisation is proud of being the very first technology company to achieve RoHS or Restriction of Hazardous Substances compliance--an European directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. The company also has an entire line of products dedicated to green computing and hails itself as being among the most power-efficient data center solutions available in the market today.
Brocade, which has approximately 90 percent market share in Asia is also a member of the Green Grid, a non-profit consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems.
“Today, data centers and computer rooms across the globe consume approximately two percent of the world’s energy, and will continue to grow on a daily basis,” said Dutta, in a statement.
“Through this sponsorship, Brocade hopes to contribute to protecting our environment by creating awareness for the importance of energy conservation and educating the public about it in the process.” |
