The Value of Green IT

Green IT, or Green Computing, traces its origins back to the early 1990s when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the “Energy Star” program intended to identify and promote energy-efficient products. Businesses took little notice of IT power consumption issues back then since they only constituted a relatively small percentage of overall operational costs. In fact, real breakthroughs in IT energy efficiency didn’t occur until the popularity of laptops increased and led to the introduction of power reduction tools, such as sleep modes and hibernation, which were developed to increase battery life.

In a study conducted in 2007 it was estimated that the IT industry consumes about 1.5 percent of a country electricity consumption and contributes to about 2% to carbon emission, the same as the airline industry. This figure is expected to double every 4 years.

The powers that be have started the wheels turning on a number of initiatives to regulate how businesses impact the environment and every business is going to have to start being conscious of activities that are potentially damaging to our planet. Treasury, in conjunction with a number of other departments, has put together a document that outlines the levying of tariffs on all electricity consumption in order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and fund renewable energy projects.

How to Get the “GREEN” Ball Rolling

A converged network infrastructure will help you make the most of your network voice, video, fax and data requirements by simplifying network management, reducing complexity and costs, and being “GREEN”.

This can be achieved through:-

• Virtualization is ‘greener’ in the sense that it involves less hardware, power and cooling. By reducing the number of servers, you reduce power usage and heat generation thereby saving costs.
• Multi Purpose Devices : These reduce power and cooling consumption by combining routers, switches, firewalls etc. into a single device.
• Multi purpose cabling: This reduces wiring infrastructure by sharing existing Ethernet re-usable wiring for voice, video, data and fax, thereby reducing energy consumption.
• VOIP reduces the telephony wiring infrastructure by sharing the existing Ethernet wiring, making the technology cheaper to run and maintain and  reduces power and cooling consumption by combining voice, video and data on one system.
• Teleconferencing reduces costs on transport and accommodation, increases productivity and reduces carbon footprint.
• Remote Access work from home, save money on rent and power, reduce travel related carbon emissions.
• Temperature & lights sensors when under control of a computerised network building management system automatically switch off air conditioners and lights when no movement is detected in a room.
• CPU power throttling: CPU throttling techniques allow processors to be slowed down during times of low use or when high performance is deemed unnecessary.
• Laptops: Replacing Desk top machines with laptops which have power reduction tools, such as sleep modes and hibernation which reduces power consumption.
• Desktops: invest in energy efficient (Energy Star) products and make use of thin clients terminals (computing units with minimal hardware configuration intended for use as a terminal for accessing services and data from a centralized server).
• Automated power management: all printers, faxes and non-computer related equipment should be  automatically shut down at a pre-determined time.
• Remote Systems Management: It enables the company to manage its network remotely reducing the need for on site staff, therefore reducing travelling carbon emission and energy consumption.

The past few years have seen significant growth in both the adoption of power reduction solutions and the development of new energy efficient technologies, and the future of Green IT practices promises to further improve cost savings and IT efficiency for the broader global IT community.