February 2009 / Green IT Intiatives

“Going Green” is a term that’s been garnering a lot of attention in recent years. From multinational corporations to small local businesses, everyone seems to be taking steps to operate more efficiently and reduce energy consumption. And while the positive effect on the environment is unmistakable, many companies are finding another benefit to Going Green – it’s helping them save money.

In this month’s Tech Brief we’ll discuss steps that you can take to make your IT Green. From simple actions you can start doing today to more strategic long-term planning, these tips will help you develop a Green IT Policy that, over time, will yield positive returns for both the environment and your bottom line.

Server Consolidation and Virtualization

Consider these two facts:

• The typical server runs at only 15-20% of its maximum capacity
• Over the lifetime of a server, 70% of its total cost is spent on cooling and power

For multiple-server environments, that’s a lot of wasted processing and electrical power. The solution is server consolidation: combining workloads from separate machines or applications into a smaller number of servers. Although there are several methods of consolidation, they all produce the same result: more efficient use of resources, a reduction in the amount of physical server infrastructure you’ll need, and a decrease in the total amount of power you consume to run your server infrastructure.

Although consolidation can substantially increase the efficient use of server resources, it may also result in complex configurations of data, applications, and servers that can be confusing for the average user to contend with. To alleviate this problem, server virtualization may be used to mask the details of server resources from users while optimizing resource sharing.

For a more in-depth discussion on server virtualization, please see our April 2007 Tech Brief.

Managing Power Settings

One of the easiest ways to save energy is to configure your computer to reduce its power consumption. By setting your computer to enter sleep/standby mode or to shut down the hard drive or monitor after a certain period of inactivity, you can cut power usage by over 90%. Unfortunately most businesses fail to have these settings configured on end user machines; something which can easily be done via desktop management policies or through the use of third party applications which manage PC and laptop power settings through the use of scripts or templates. Another practice to consider is to instruct users to fully turn their computers off at the end of each day, or at least before the weekend.

Replacing Old Equipment

Old equipment may actually be costing you more in energy consumption to keep around than it would cost to purchase newer, more efficient models. Here are some guidelines for identifying what to replace, and when to replace it.

Computers

When it comes time to buy new computers, consider purchasing laptops instead of desktops. While desktop PCs use around 150 watts of power per hour, the typical laptop only uses around 15-25 watts per hour. Computers should be replaced every 3-5 years depending on usage.

Monitors

If you haven’t already, now is the time to trade in your old CRT monitors for LCD. Flat panel LCD monitors use 50% less power than CRTs, which means that if you’ve been putting off replacing your old monitors because they still work, it may actually be costing you more to keep them running.

Servers

Chip manufactures like Intel have created new processors that reduce the amount of power consumption in servers. As part of your consolidation strategy, you should consider eliminating or replacing servers that are over 4 years old.

Telecommuting

It’s been estimated that if the 40% of Americans whose jobs could be done remotely actually did work from home, 625 million barrels of oil a year would be saved – or around $43 billion in gas costs. Reduced travel costs aren’t the only benefit of telecommuting. For businesses, studies show that not only will you see higher employee satisfaction, but you’ll also notice a reduction in overhead office costs. With VPNs, remote access solutions such as Citrix and Terminal Services, and the widespread adoption of broadband internet access in US homes, creating fast and secure connections to the office is easier than ever before. And because advanced teleconferencing software solutions make “online” meetings more efficient and interactive than ever, telecommuting should be a cornerstone of your Green IT Policy.

Smarter Printing/Faxing

How many times have you printed Mapquest directions or an online article only to find that extra pages with a couple lines of legal text or a banner ad were printed as well? The printer is one of the largest sources of waste in an office, but thankfully there are tools you can use to cut down on the use of paper and toner. GreenPrint (www.printgreener.com) is an application which analyzes documents sent to a printer and identifies waste pages. It will recommend which pages should be printed, which shouldn’t, and different ways to condense print jobs such as removing non-essential images.

In addition to using an application like GreenPrint, consider saving a document as a pdf and emailing it instead of printing or faxing it. Not only are pdfs more legible than faxes, but you can be sure that any sensitive information will directly reach the target audience instead of sitting out in the open on a fax machine.

Improved Server Room Design

Identifying the areas of your network that consume the most energy and making them more efficient is incredibly important – and one of the first places to look is your server room. Due to the vast quantities of electricity needed to power and cool the server room, it’s often one of the largest areas of IT expense, and is therefore an area where you can save considerably with good planning.

Whether you’re in the process of building a new server room or just looking for ways to make your current one work more efficiently, here are some design tips that you should consider:

• Plan on building your server room in a modular way so that power consumption can be scaled with growth
• Utilize Combined Heat and Power (CHP) technology to reduce emission and electricity consumption
• Implement a system that cools your server room with cold outside air during the winter months instead of using air conditioning
• Optimize your floor layout by using hot-aisle/cold-aisle configurations with suitable air conditioner locations
• Use DC power for a portion of your infrastructure. DC, or battery, power generates less heat than AC power
• Install energy-efficient, motion-activated lights to reduce the heat generated by lighting

Recycle Old Equipment

One of the fastest growing forms of waste in the United States is electronic equipment, called e-waste. Unfortunately only 15-20% of outdated electronic equipment is recycled properly, the remaining 75%-80% usually ends up at landfills in developing countries where chemicals such as lead, mercury, and chromium seep into the water supply. It should go without saying that responsible recycling of old electronic equipment needs be a part of every Green IT plan.

The first step you should take when deciding what to do with outdated equipment is to determine if it should be reused or recycled. If the equipment is less than 5 years old, you should consider donating it to an organization which will refurbish it and provide it to schools or charities. If the equipment is older than 5 years or is broken, it should be sent to a reputable computer recycler who will salvage reusable parts and safely remove and dispose of hazardous chemicals.

You can find a list of refurbishers and recyclers as well as other helpful information on disposing of e-waste at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website.

In Closing

Although the methods we discussed today are just a handful of the actions you can take to make your IT more Green, they should hopefully act as a springboard for action. In the end, even if you follow just one of the steps above you’ll be making a noticeable difference in the long run. If you’d like more information on how to put together a Green IT Plan or have any questions in general concerning your IT, please feel free to contact Thrive.