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Green IT isn’t just a buzzword anymore. It’s a business
imperative. Nearly 80% of organizations mandate energy consumption audits as
part of their standard facilities and IT management regimen. While environmental
stewardship is a driving force, considerable business benefits can also be
realized by adopting greener IT practices, including hardware selection,
utilization and disposal, virtualization, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and
paperless office initiatives. These benefits include extended ROI for
out-of-use equipment, tax deductions, energy savings and enhanced workforce
efficiency.
E-Waste
Perhaps the most obvious step towards greener IT practices
is the responsible disposal of e-waste, which can be any type of electronic
device that is broken or obsolete. Proper disposal isn’t just environmentally
sound, it might be the law in your state—and you may have already paid for this
service. In California, the Electronic Waste Recycling Fee is imposed on the
retail sale or lease of certain electronic products (primarily
monitors/displays). Fees range from $9 to $25 per item. California is not
alone. To date, 20 other states have similar e-waste laws in place.
Even the federal government is getting in on the act.
Currently, bill S. 1397 is currently before congress. Titled the Electronic
Device Recycling Research and Development Act, this bill would authorize the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants for
electronic device recycling research, development and demonstration projects,
and for other purposes.
So where do you trade in or recycle your e-waste? One option
is to donate it to a non-profit that provides a tax deduction, such as Goodwill
of Orange County, California. Their state certified e-waste program guarantees
the proper destruction of stored data, and ensures e-waste will be refurbished
or recycled domestically. Visit http://www.ocgoodwill-ewaste.org/
for more information.
Another terrific option for businesses seeking to maximize that
last bit of return from their end-of-life technology products is to participate
in a buy-back, trade-in or trade-up program. These programs are offered by
various entities, from retailers to reseller/integrators and even
manufacturers. Toshiba’s laptop division hosts a Reuse and Recycle program (http://laptops.toshiba.com/green/reuse-and-recycling),
and offers buy-backs for qualifying laptops from a variety of manufacturers.
RICOM (http://www.shopricom.com)
is a value-added technology reseller based in Irvine, California. RICOM offers
a comprehensive buy-back and recycling program. From their website: “RICOM’s
recycling and buyback programs offers customers in the United States a simple
way to receive cash for their unwanted technology equipment or, if there is no
value, recycle it. Remanufacture and reuse is only one component of the
environmental lifecycle. A complete approach to the environment considers all
aspects of a product’s lifecycle and footprint of a product. Systems that can
be upgraded using refurbished components extend the end date of their use.
RICOM offers refurbished components in new products and packaging as an
alternative of cost savings. Hardware asset recovery has value with used
equipment trade-in/trade-up, donation and off lease programs. With 20 years
experience in IT sales, refurbishing and recycling operations, green is good
business.”
Once old equipment is out of the data center or off the
network, it is imperative that IT management source replacement equipment that
has lower power consumption requirements, runs cooler and can support
virtualization and other architectures that maximize use of resources while
minimizing energy costs. Partnering with a reseller or integrator who has
solid, demonstrable experience with green IT initiatives can really pay off.
Virtualize Resources
It’s been estimated that typical server utilization hovers
around 10 percent. While servers obviously can’t be run at their peak capacity
due to spikes in demand, there is clearly room for improvement. Server
virtualization allocates a single server into multiple, smaller virtual servers
without multiple increments of power consumption. Reclaiming unused processing
capacity without drawing more power delivers near linear savings to the bottom
line. Managing virtual servers requires new tools and skills, but most who
adopt virtualization find the learning curve short and the benefits tremendous.
According to IDC, storage systems are growing their capacity
at a rate of 50 percent a year. They are among the most energy-hungry IT assets
in the data center. Storage systems typically consume 13 times more power than
server processors and often have very low utilization (25 percent or less in
some cases). By virtualizing storage, drive use can be raised to 50 percent or
more. Don’t overlook energy-saving devices like hot-swappable drives, power
supplies and NICs.
Green With SaaS
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is experiencing a tremendous
increase in popularity. By 2013 the worldwide SaaS revenue for enterprise
applications will reach $16 billion. (Gartner – May 2009). Besides the obvious
benefits of applications being delivered as a utility (line-item expense vs.
capital outlay, automated updates & backup, scalable to meet demand), it is
also a very green way to provide service to users.
SaaS offerings are typically available from providers
utilizing cloud computing and virtualization to offer the flexible, dependable
service to a number of shared users. This effectively shrinks the data center
in terms of hardware, energy consumption and—in some cases—staff hours spent
managing and administering systems.
In a recent article on www.softwareadvice.com (http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/saas-v-on-premises-which-one-is-more-green-1092209/),
a case study was provided of a four-physician practice running EMR software in-house
versus through SaaS. In this case, the on-premises solution showed per-person/year
usage of 2,352 KW. With the SaaS solution, per-person/year usage dropped to 152.85
KW for a theoretical 93 percent energy savings.
Go Paperless
Need a reason to go paperless? Current estimates show that
50-70% of office space is dedicated to document storage while 45% of files in
those cabinets are actually duplicated information of which 80% is never
retrieved again! That means most companies are throwing good money away to
light, heat, cool and manage a huge amount of unneeded floor space. That’s just
for stored files. According to a study done by Alameda County, CA, the cost of
paper only accounts for about 10 - 11% of the lifecycle cost of paper. The main
cost actually comes from copying, delivery, handing, storage, and retrieval. Additionally,
for every dollar spent producing a paper form, $30 to $150 dollars are spent
processing the form (Gartner – 2008). Keeping it out of your office—and out of
the landfill—not only saves trees and protects the environment, it saves an
enormous amount of money.
There is push towards the unification of several disparate systems
to provide a single platform for content, communication and collaboration,
commonly referred to as the 3Cs. The 3Cs marry Document Management, Unified
Communications and Business Process Management into a single platform, often
offered via SaaS. One of the basic premises of the 3Cs is to eliminate the use
of paper and digitize existing files so they become more efficiently stored,
useful and safe. This reduces paper consumption, reduces storage space and
resources (filing cabinets, boxes, etc), reduces use of printers, fax machines
and copiers, reduces paper mail and greatly affects the efficiency of the
workforce. It also promotes compliance with HIPAA, SOX, and SEC regulations.
Implementing a 3Cs solution also helps reduce CO2 emissions
by facilitating telecommuting and remote IT management and administration. For example,
each week the U.S. white-collar workforce burns more than 583 million gallons
of gasoline driving to work. 1,680 pounds of CO2 emissions would be saved each
year if each worker worked from home one day a week, according to Telework
Exchange. Plus, studies by several companies and the U.S. Patent Office have
shown that teleworking initiatives can help motivate and retain key employees. Other
studies have shown an increase in productivity ranging as high as 30 to 40
percent.
Next Steps
If your organization does not have a strategy for green IT,
it’s time to start. From paper usage to recycling, data center optimization to
delivery of services, there’s room for improvement in nearly every company. While
few IT managers are experts at going green, resources are available. Contact
your reseller about setting up a green IT consultation. The results could yield
far more than a healthier planet.
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