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When green gets growing
10 December, 2009
By Anthony Wright |
Just as this article was being prepared for publication, headlines were popping up in Canadian media announcing the introduction in Canada of the Tesla. Hailed as the first all-electric, high-performance sports car, the Tesla's appearance seemed, in the context of this story, indicative of the steadily growing commitment to going green. Clearly, despite the economic ups and downs of the past year, green remains top of mind for many of us. Moreover, whether we're buzzing about in an electric car or purchasing ENERGY STAR®-rated computers, we see technology --information and otherwise --as central to our greening efforts.
IT is key to going green
Information technology is now recognized as integral to our green agendas. In its 2009 Green IT Report, Symantec states that 89 percent of survey respondents think IT should play a very or extremely significant role in green efforts, while 82 percent have a corporate green advocate, with more than one fifth of those advocates focused exclusively on green IT initiatives. They also report that right behind electricity consumption and lowering cooling costs, the third driver of green initiatives is the pressure to be green.
Thus, motivated by both social responsibility and the bottom line, companies are looking to their IT infrastructure --primarily their data centres --as a means to cut costs and consumption. And while there's no shortage of stats about what one industry analyst referred to as "IT's insatiable appetite for power", there are also the re-energizing success stories --for example, Citrix, which, through the virtualization of its server environment, cited cost-savings of $9,000 a month (not including additional efficiencies in networking and cabling).
Virtualization is virtually everywhere
Virtualization has figured prominently in the green / optimization strategies of 2009, and is expected to remain strong in 2010. Little wonder: an average data centre with 250 physical servers can be decreased quite feasibly to 10 or 20, and at the minimum, the hardware sprawl can often be reduced by half.
The advancing cloud
Coinciding with the increase in virtualization has been the continued growth of a related technology: cloud computing. Cloud computing is essentially a network of IT resources --applications, for instance --that are shared across the enterprise rather than installed on individual servers and end-user devices. The word 'cloud' refers to the imagery often used to represent this somewhat nebulous network. Advantages to the cloud model include low up-front costs and usage-based service fees.
"We are seeing a growing movement towards cloud computing," says Steve Harris, Principal Consultant with xwave's Advanced Technology Solutions (ATS) business. "For 2010 and beyond, we expect to see more companies switching from a model where IT services are procured to one where they are consumed and managed internally." This shift, he adds, will compel companies to focus on their internal software, infrastructure and platforms in a new way --one that will prompt an even closer scrutiny of opportunities for efficiency.
Optimizing the data centre --starting with a roadmap
Together, cloud computing and virtualization point to a continued emphasis on data centre consolidation --one of the most significant trends overall in 2009. "And by consolidation, we mean not only consolidation of servers but architectural design of new data centres and improved measurement of energy consumption," says Steve Harris. "Companies are either looking at optimizing what they currently have in their IT environments or they're developing roadmaps for where they need to go to become greener."
xwave, for example, has in place a Core Technology Program that provides organizations with a technology 'snapshot' or blueprint of current infrastructure, followed up with an implementation plan for getting IT where it needs to be. One xwave client, one of Canada's largest providers of long-term care, is using the results from a recent Core Technology Review to support the enterprise-wide deployment of Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange. The new platforms will go live in spring 2010, rounding out other IT upgrades such as the installation of VOIP and the virtualization of about 90 percent of its infrastructure.
Thin is in
The overall emphasis on virtualized and shared resources has brought with it an increase in desktop virtualization and thin-client computing. IDC predicted in December 2008 that 'thin-client deployments on the back of desktop virtualization will gain traction in 2009, and further accelerate into 2010'. It appears IDC was right. Advantages such as smaller size, lower deployment costs and enhanced security have made thin-clients a popular option in sectors such as healthcare, education, retail and financial services.
Utilities offer powerful incentives
Another trend we can expect to see more of in 2010: green financial incentives from power providers. "Nationally, we've seen many of the regional power-utility companies roll out energy-saving incentives for commercial and industrial organizations," says Steve Harris. "These incentives can take the form of rebates and other financial drivers for companies undertaking formal energy-reducing initiatives --involving, for example, energy assessments, implementation plans, capital building projects and data-centre incentive plans."
Increased emphasis on maintaining standards
On a similar note, more organizations are taking notice of energy-related standards such as ENERGY STAR®-compliance and EPEAT certification. EPEAT --the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool --is used to evaluate the environmental performance of electronic products throughout their life cycles, with specifications related to everything from energy consumption and use of recycled materials to mercury content and toxins in packaging. One xwave client now working to meet EPEAT criteria expects that doing so will lower infrastructure costs by 30 percent.
Cost-savings such as these are the kinds of hard targets needed to compel companies to achieve what are sometimes considered abstract objectives. "Companies tend to build their green business cases on soft rather than hard financial targets," points out Steve Harris. With most investments, he says, organizations look for a return within 24 months --in publicly-traded organizations, the timeline is 12 months. "For green strategies, however, these rules don't tend to be as apparent."
"As is the case with any worthwhile task or investment we undertake, we want to see the results," says Steve Harris. "It's one thing to work toward being socially responsible; it's another to know you're actually making a difference. I think that, cost-savings and business efficiencies aside for a moment, most companies do want to make a difference. Logic and experience would suggest that as green IT becomes more mainstream, our tools for measuring success will improve."
Anthony Wright is Vice President of Advanced Technology Solutions at xwave, a division of Bell Aliant |
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