Green IT / Infrastructure Management


Green IT? What is this new buzz word? We are in new era of Green Revolution. We have done enough damage to earth by hooks and crooks to make our life easy and luxurious. But don't you forget that luxurious life and easy life style always come with some disadvantages. These disadvantages are heavily depended on human activity and man made technologies. This is time for change. We need to take new pledge to change the way we think, way we behave, way we live, way we use natural resources and of course last but not least way we use technology to make our life easy.

Yes, Accepting new change is real challenge for all human as we are genetically designed that we resist new changes even though it is beneficial for human kind, earth, environment and other creatures around you. Yes, human got intelligence and wisdom which none of the creatures on the earth got. So, we need to use our intelligence and wisdom for good. It requires only little getting use to with daily routine.

In Business, sudden change and uncertainty about future and resources can be extremely risky. You can help to make future certain and availability of natural resources longer then now by using alternative resources. Yes there is always two chance either you get on well with that change or you lost your battle for doing Business in this cut throat competitive market. But what about the change which is not difficult to implement, thoroughly checked, assessed, measured and tested by some expert in their organization to achieve Environmental feasible goal. Green IT is really hot topic in growing business as environmental laws and regulation are getting tougher to protect environment. Compliance with laws and regulation required some kind of joint efforts and measurable plan to cut Co2 emission, reduce energy waste, efficient management and planning of resources with recycling more then what we do now. This area has been overlooked since long time as people are just undermining benefits of Green IT. But Green IT can lead your business ahead with same quality but reduced energy cost and CO2 foot print in to this innovative and constantly shaping new world.

Do you know?

"In a typical desktop computer, nearly half the power coming out of the wall is wasted and never reaches the processor, memory, disks, or other components."

"The added heat from inefficient computers can increase the demand on air conditioners and cooling systems, making your computing equipment even more expensive to run."

"Even though most of today's desktop computers are capable of automatically transitioning to a sleep or hibernate state when inactive, about 90 percent of systems have this function disabled."

"Some 25 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics-computers, DVD players, stereos, TVs-is consumed while the products are turned off."

"An average desktop computer requires 85 watts just to idle, even with the monitor off. If that computer were in use or idling for only 40 hours a week instead of a full 168, over $40 in energy costs would be saved annually."

"One computer left on 24 hours a day costs you between $115 and $160 in electricity costs annually while dumping 1,500 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere."

"A tree absorbs between 3 and 15 pounds of CO2 each year. That means up to 500 trees are needed to offset the annual emissions of one computer left on all the time!"

"If each household in a region the size of the metro Boston area turned off its computer for just one additional hour per day, it would save $3.2 million in electricity costs and prevent 19,000 tons of CO2 from heating the atmosphere."

"Electricity production is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, ahead of transportation."

"In a 2006 report, the International Association of Electronics Recyclers projects that with the current growth and obsolescence rates of the various categories of consumer electronics, approximately 3 billion units will be scrapped during the rest of this decade, or an average of 400 million units a year."

"Gartner has estimated that 133,000 personal computers are discarded by U.S. homes and businesses each day."

"Each year 130 million cell phones are retired."

"According to the EPA, we generated 2.6 million tons of e-waste in the U.S. in 2005, or 1.4 percent of total discards. Of this amount only 12.6% was recycled."

"About 68 percent of consumers stockpile used or unwanted computer equipment in their homes."

Let's have a look how Green IT Implementation will help to reduce your cost and increase return over investment.

  • Green IT is environmental Friendly way of Using IT
  • Reduce E-waste which contains heavy metals and mercury in products
  • Eco-friendly equipments, devices and peripherals uses less power so you save money on your energy bills
  • Eco-Friendly Printer uses less amount of ink and tonners which saves environment
  • Re-use your cartridge and refill cartridge can help to cut in E-waste
  • Web pages and electronically shared information reduces paper usage and also transition time from one place to another
  • Replacing all your CRT based monitor with low powered LCD screen saves huge amount of money
  • Replacing your normal bulbs and tubes to CFL based bulbs and tubes reduce your energy bills
  • Room temperature and change in recycled air system will help to lower thermal temperature in Server rooms and data centers
  • Maximum use of Virtualisation technology will reduce number of Workstation and Servers requirements
  • Running multiple servers on one machine will reduce your energy consumption
  • Replacing dedicated printer, scanner, plotter and photocopier with MFD (Multi Functional Devices) will reduce need of psce, power and e-waste.
  • Improved Market reputation
  • Tax Credits and Awards
  • Product lifecycles will continue to increase as low energy devices are developing
  • Better power management enhances stability of system
  • Moral and legal obligation fulfillment

Above all benefits leads to another two benefits which are self fulfillment and Social responsibility towards environment. It is also great feeling that you have helped environment while earning name, fame and return over investment

Eventually, there are a number of ways that any business can leverage green IT to increase its business operations, business process and communication while reducing its environmental impact using effective planning, policy, compliance

with laws and regulation, consultation and strategies for long term reduction in CO2 emission. All of these are in heart of Green IT.

Simple Tips for Green IT:

  • Before you buy check energy efficiency
  • Use power management technology in Hardware and software
  • Don't leave your Computer / Workstation on while you are not using
  • Turn off your Monitor
  • Replace all your CRT based monitors with TFT or LCD screen monitor
  • Use smaller LCD screen as size matters in terms of consumption
  • Use Work Group Printer then individual printer for every person saves money n devices as well as power
  • Use ink jet printer even though they are slower then laser because they uses less power
  • Use Duplex Printing in Printer options to save cost of paper and don't print if it is really necessary to print.
  • Use more emails then postal mail for communication
  • Use CFL bulbs
  • Use Surge Protector with Power control which cuts power to computer and other connected devices when they are not in use.
  • Use Room Temperature controller to maintain flow of circulating fresh air to maintain normal temperature and reduce excessive use of Air Conditioning
  • Use Virtualization technology to consolidate Servers and applications
  • Use properly implemented and planned SAN / NAS
  • Use Kiosk and thin client to reduce CPU and GPU power consumption
  • Turn off Screen saver which uses back light in LCD and in CRT keep cathode ray gun moving.
  • Use MFD for printing, scanning and photocopying to reduce separated power usage
  • Use more electronically shared information, wiki, portal and share point technology to reduce paper consumption
  • Training and awareness in employees are also most important area of implementation
  • Use unified technology for communication rather then separate Telephone line and EPBX System
  • Upgrade your system rather then buying new one and creating more e-watse
  • Buy only eco-friendly products which are made from recycled material or recyclable.
  • Implement VoIP technology for live chatting, web conferencing and interactive communication
  • Replace your HDD with small form factor or Solid state Hard drive as they are consuming less power
  • Maximize use of Terminal Server for applications and software
  • Use products which are marked with energy star and longer in life.

© Written by Sandip S Panchal (M.Sc. Mobile Computing & Communication, MCSE, CCNA)

References:

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2010/02/12/240283/weighing-the-benefits-of-green-it.htm

http://blog.tmcnet.com/next-generation-communications/2010/01/the_eco-benefits_of_green_it_for_the_dynamic_enterprise.html

http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/1933

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing

http://www.apc.com/index.cfm?ISOCountryCode=us

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