Aug. 5, 2008 - Data storage firms now have help verifying the energy savings of their products, making them eligible for energy-efficiency rebates.

Wikibon, a Wikipedia-style IT advice portal, has introduced a new service called Conserve IT to help tech vendors and their customers to qualify for rewards offered by utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric.

"Conserve IT is designed to speed up the time it takes to qualify for utility rewards resulting in less time in offering cash incentives to customers," the company said in a statement. "It also allows members to share best practice on techniques for reducing energy consumption in datacenters."

The Wikibon community developed the service to increase the participation of storage technologies which are major consumers of power and cooling in datacenters.

Companies including Xiotech, 3PAR, Compellent, DataDirect Networks, EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, and Nexsan have already signed on for the service.