Sun Microsystems launched its Eco Advantage Program to help its partners green their IT practices.

The program is part of the company's Eco Innovation initiatives unveiled last year to help customers operate with a smaller IT environmental impact. Eco Advantage offers several services as well as access to some of Sun's latest products, such as its new SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 server, scalable archive products and its virtualized Solaris Operating System.

The program is comprised of four main parts. First, there is basic training available on data center power, cooling and other environmental issues to help reduce companies' overall carbon footprint.

The second component, the Sun Eco Assessment Service, evaluates data center energy use, cooling capacity, air distribution and other factors. The Eco Modeling and ROI tools help companies find solutions using a variety of power, cooling and carbon savings scenarios.

The fourth component involves implementation methodologies to help companies execute their chosen solutions.

"Sun understands that helping partners quickly build out their portfolio of energy-saving products and services will provide value to customers and create revenue opportunities for the partners themselves," said Bill Cate, Sun's senior director of global channel marketing.