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By now, most IT pros are familiar with Green IT technologies such as virtualization, and more efficiently cooling data centers. But consultants say that a new wave of Green IT technologies are on the way --- call it Green IT 2.0.
In Green IT 2.0, greening and energy savings related to technology will expand well beyond the data center, and beyond individual PCs. It goes even beyond networks. Green IT 2.0 goes to the very core of the way an enterprise operates --- it examines business processes and operations at every level of a company, and suggests ways to re-tool for energy saving and reducing carbon emissions.
The first wave of Green IT 2.0 is just starting to hit. As noted in ComputerWeekly.com's Green IT: Software for counting carbon and controlling costs, there is a new wave of carbon management and environmental management IT tools just now being released by firms such as Carbonetworks. They are decision-making tools that help enterprises determine the best way to reduce their carbon footprints. And the software can be used to help companies alter the way they do business as a way to reduce their carbon footprints.
The tools integrate with existing IT infrastructure, so will fall under the purview of IT departments. Here's an example, taken from Green IT: Software for counting carbon and controlling costs:
"We were considering investing in a video conferencing room to cut down on flying and assumed we should put it in the offices where the largest number of people are working and therefore flying from," says Tony Rooke, head of environment and sustainability at Logica. "Instead, we found people were flying more to and from two other locations."
This information led the company to site the conference room at a different office, cutting more airline travel in the process. These are the kinds of findings his team is making with its clients, he says.
Previously, analysis software served the accounts department and only showed the financial cost of travel rather than the origin and destination of flights. "Current reporting systems are financially based. We drill down to the deeper data to acquire better knowledge of what is going on," states Rooke.
Deloitte's (John) Winstanley says, "These IT suppliers [provide] systems that assist clients to work out the carbon cost of the transaction as well as the business cost. It helps them decide where to spend their money to ensure the maximum return." Further evidence of the begining of Green IT 2.0 is that enterprise software giant SAP is incorporating carbon management into its enterprise-level finance and logistics systems. SAP sustainability operations manager Daniel Schmid told ComputerWeekly.com that SAP is now "targeting the emissions produced outside the IT hardware a company uses, supporting companies in being sustainable. Our strength is that we look at the business process, which crosses silos."
The upshot of all this? In Green IT 2.0, energy-savings and environmental awareness won't be viewed as separate from the core of IT's work --- it will be embedded directly in it.
Business
Glen Seimetz, Senior Director Siemens IT Solutions and Services
The last line of this article is really the key point: “In Green IT 2.0, energy-savings and environmental awareness won't be viewed as separate from the core of IT's work --- it will be embedded directly in it.” Green is good for the environment. But we all know that
green is also the color of money. We’re finally figuring out in IT how much green we’ve been wasting over the years and we can’t afford to continue that in today’s economic climate.
Virtualization technology is a major enabler of Green IT 2.0. can deliver impressive cost savings, especially virtualized environments hosted on new blade server technology. But to sustain expected savings, proper maintenance of your operating environment is
imperative. Data centers were built with a life cycle of 10+ years without the knowledge of high density IT equipment (such as blade servers) that consume more power per square foot and generate more heat. With virtualization, savings of 40-80 percent are possible. But you need to ensure that you have the infrastructure ready to support high density IT equipment. Here are a few steps to improve power and cooling efficiency for highly dense blade servers and make a green impact in your IT environment:
• Organize the IT equipment into a hot and cold aisle floor design
• Position it so that you can control the airflow between the hot and cold aisles and prevent hot air from re-circulating back to the IT equipment cooling intakes
• Leverage low-cost supplemental cooling options— such as water or refrigerant heat exchangers
• Improve rack cooling efficiency by employing a rear door heat exchanger or an enclosed racking system to dissipate heat from high-density computer systems
before it enters the room
• Ensure that floor openings match the equipment thermal load by adding or removing perforated tiles at the equipment air intakes
• Consider adding ducted returns
• Consider new dense IT equipment cooling solutions with sensors and supply side variable speed fans to reduce or increase airflow cubic feet per minute (CFM) for improved cooling efficiency
Ultimately, you should consider organizing your Data Center into thermal zones. Assign a defined set of IT equipment and floor space to specific Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) units. This type of space and thermal planning will eliminate hot spots that challenge cooling systems and will enhance system reliability by helping to
avoid heat-related hardware failures to your blade servers.
These are just a few ideas. But in my experience, even this short list can deliver impressive green results…for the environment and your bottom line.