Despite the slowing economy, research in the US shows that twice as many companies are accelerating their green IT initiatives compared to firms that are scaling back on green projects.
The main reason why companies are so keen on a green agenda is to save money on energy - according to nearly 70% of the organisations surveyed. Only around 30% had more altruistic goals of reducing global warming and improving the environment.
Is this such a bad thing? If companies can improve the bottom line by 'going green' then it's probably an easier 'sell' to sceptical board members, than mending the hole in the ozone layer or slowing the rate at which icebergs melt.
This attitude is also going to have a positive impact on sales in the IT industry, because old IT equipment is very energy inefficient. New generation systems deliver energy efficiency and higher performance.
For example, by replacing old cathode ray tube monitors with more efficient light-emitting diode monitors, energy savings of up to 25% can be made. Thin clients and solid state drives have lower power requirements and contribute to cost savings.
Many companies are initiating processes whereby equipment such as desktop computers, notebooks, monitors and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems are regularly evaluated according to their energy costs to the company.
What's more, new technology can often reduce the amount of equipment needed, further enhancing the cost savings that can be realised. For instance, devices that serve only one function can be replaced with multifunction devices, and multiple networks can be converged into a single infrastructure to save on energy consumption.
Data centre savings
In the US, the energy used to power and cool data centres has doubled in the past five years, and is expected to nearly double again in the next five, to more than 100 billion kilowatt-hours, costing about $7.4 billion annually. This trend is typical of data centres around the globe - including South Africa.
Unfortunately, a large percentage of this energy is wasted, and the call has gone out to companies that run power-hungry data centres and the technology firms that supply them, to take responsibility for solving the problem.
There is enough scope for significant savings, as around 50% of the power in a data centre is consumed by the server equipment; another 30% by ancillary systems, including storage; and a further 20% by air conditioning systems.
Virtualisation is able to cut the number of servers in the average data centre by around 80% and reduce the physical footprint of the facility by 50% or more
Philip Hampton is CTO at Powermode
One of the technologies that can be readily employed to cut energy consumption in the data centre is virtualisation. Virtualisation is able to make a single physical resource, such as a server, appear to function as multiple logical resources.
In many data centres, servers sit idle in a 'power on' state in the hopes of being needed at some point - all the while burning energy. Even when up and running, most servers operate at between 5% and 10% of their capacity.
Virtualisation is able to cut the number of servers in the average data centre by around 80% and reduce the physical footprint of the facility by 50% or more. They are also capable of playing a vital role in reducing the cooling requirements, as fewer servers produce less heat.
On the subject of cooling, rather than spend money on additional cooling for the entire data centre, it is possible to pinpoint hotspots and areas of energy inefficiency by examining every rack for airflow problems - and then addressing them in localised areas.
Power management
To conserve power, many companies are now looking to identify key areas in the organisation where energy consumption is abnormally high, and even target individuals who use excessive amounts of energy.
In this way, green projects can be targeted at the most appropriate or deserving areas in the organisation, which will deliver the biggest returns on investment.
Energy conservation policies fall under the umbrella of power management, and even the most sophisticated of solutions often need to be supplemented by simple, 'common-sense' manual methods - like turning off equipment that is not in use or changing power settings to activate the hibernate/sleep/shutdown mode on idle systems.
Finally, it's a good idea to decommission unused equipment and recycle electronic equipment at 'end of life'. In the process, there might also be an opportunity to recover some asset value.
* Philip Hampton is CTO at Powermode.
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