Better PC, server usage key to going green in IT

The year 2007 has marked a tipping point in how the technology industry needs to address the issue of excess power consumption, greenhouse gases and other environmental issues, according to an analyst from Gartner Inc.

Gartner research estimates that the IT industry is currently responsible for about 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Mingay said that while that amount appears to be small, it is actually equal to that of the entire aviation industry, in which a single jet burns through thousands of gallons of fuel with every commercial flight.

"If IT [companies] did nothing, carbon dioxide would grow 5% to 10% [annually]," Mingay said. "It's a mistake to assume IT will be allowed to continue with this growth rate." — Simon Mingay, Gartner analyst

Mingay called the technology-services industry "the biggest contributor" to carbon dioxide emissions, mostly due to inefficiencies related to lackadaisical power use practices.
"Right now, IT power bills are costing more than servers, and data centers and power grids a struggling as a result," he said.

The largest culprits in terms of power use are data center servers, which make up 23% of the IT industry's power consumption, and workplace PCs and monitors, which use 39% of the power in the IT sector. Other sources include fixed line and mobile telecommunications, local-area networks and printers.

"It's death by a thousand cuts," Mingay said. "The sheer volume of 880 million PCs drives those numbers."

The resulting environmental impact equates to more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, increases in hazardous and electronic waste and continued used of non-renewable resources, he said.

However, Mingay believes that all is not lost in terms of the IT industry addressing the matter of wasteful energy use. The issue will cause many corporations and technology product suppliers to launch more green IT programs in 2008.

"There's so much low-hanging fruit that the business case is relatively straightforward," Mingay said.

Mingay believe that more companies, and the businesses that supply them with IT products, will have to develop more clearly defined policies and strategies for power use and how to cut down where possible.

Mingay said there needs to be a trend toward measuring and analyzing power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, if companies and their equipment providers aren't already doing so. Among the steps he is supporting is a changing the philosophy of corporate data centers as being "always on" to "always available," and integrate server virtualization to cut down on the actual amount of servers necessary to run certain data center applications.

But the easiest step Mingay said that businesses can take involves the desktop PC that sits on nearly every employee's desk. Mingay said that between 9% and 15% of office power use comes from standard office equipment, and that failure to turn off PCs is responsible for an unnecessary amount of that power use.

Mingay said that about 60% of PCs are left on after employees have finished work, and that not using things such as active screen savers, and either turning the PCs off or setting them to low-power states can cut businesses power bills in half.

"We're not going to see a biodegradable PC any time soon," Mingay said.

src: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/analyst-sees-better-pc-server/
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Write About the Environment on 15 October: Blog Action Day

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future. Join This Initiative


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Notebook Computers Go Green - Seagate Hybrid Hard Drive Ushers in New Era of Power-Thrifty, Higher Performance Mobile Computing

Seagate ships energy-efficient, fast-responding Momentus(R) 5400 PSD notebook hard drive; heralds new generation of computer storage for laptops, other computers

Seagate Technology , the world's number one hard drive maker, today launched a new era of digital storage by shipping in volume hybrid notebook disc drives that combine disc storage with flash memory to deliver ultra power efficiency, faster boot-ups and greater reliability for the exploding laptop PC market.

"With instant access to content, an increasingly essential part of the digital lifestyle, laptop users expect systems with snappy response, longer battery life and new levels of durability," said Tom Major, Seagate vice president, Personal Compute Business. "Seagate is delivering in volume worldwide the best of two worlds -- hard disc drives and flash memory -- to enable laptop PCs with cutting-edge capabilities and tighten the connection between users and their information."

Seagate has been at the forefront of introducing energy-saving features on its hard drives, and the new Momentus 5400 PSD hard drive ends the perennial trade-off for notebook PC makers. Laptop users want faster systems, but boosting laptop PC performance with higher speed components has traditionally meant higher power consumption and shorter battery life, raising the question: How do you reduce power consumption while delivering faster access to notebook data?

Combine power-efficient, quick-response flash memory with a fast hard disc drive.

The new Momentus 5400 PSD (Power Savings Drive) hard drive uses non-volatile cache, or flash memory, to cost-effectively deliver the benefits of solid state disc drives. The Momentus hard drive places commonly used hard drive data onto a large 256MB flash memory to deliver these capabilities:

Faster boot-up -- Once a notebook is turned on, a traditional hard drive's platters must spin up before boot-up can begin. Hybrid hard drives load boot-up files on the flash memory to minimize this delay. Once the drive spins up, computer files are pulled simultaneously from the spinning media and the flash.

Lower power consumption -- Seagate's Momentus 5400 PSD hard drives reduce hard disc drive power draw by up to 50 percent and extends battery life -- especially important in mobile applications -- by reducing platter spin time. In hybrid mode, the hard drive's spindle motors spin down, dramatically reducing the drive's power requirements.

Greater reliability -- Reducing platter spin time extends drive life by minimizing wear and tear. In hybrid mode, the drive locks its read-write heads in place, enabling the drive to withstand 900 Gs of shock, the rough equivalent of dropping a laptop from a height of six feet to a hard surface.

Higher performance -- Hybrid hard drives also quicken access to laptop data. Windows Vista's ReadyDrive technology uses Vista Superfetch to analyze computer usage patterns -- such as how frequently a worker accesses certain files -- and place commonly accessed user data in the flash memory to shorten system response time.

"We're thrilled Seagate is bringing to market hybrid hard drives that take full advantage of Windows Vista," said Dennis Moulton, product manager of Windows Client marketing at Microsoft. "It is this type of innovation in the ecosystem that helps move the bar, and we're excited about the productivity gains this helps bring to our customers in combination with Windows Vista."

All versions of Windows Vista deliver native support for hybrid drives, so system builders and end users alike can take advantage of hybrid hard drive technology today. Hybrid technology also delivers benefits for desktop, enterprise and other hard drives. Look for hybrid technology on other Seagate drive platforms in the future.
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Telia Goes Green

The Swedish-based firm has started to operate its telecom and datacom networks and all other service production in Sweden using only environmentally friendly “green power”. The company says it will use renewable energy such as wind, water, solar and biomass for all its electricity consumption.

The company expects to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by about 20 percent through these measures.

Telia has been focusing on reducing the impact its activities have on environment in recent years and has managed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 70 percent, according to the company. They also have brought in many revolutionary measures such as cutting down on business travel, reducing office space and increasing the use of services such as telephone conferences and network meetings via PC.

“We have a growing number of environmentally aware consumers and we want to give them the opportunity to also make a green choice for their telecom operator,” Erik Hallberg, head of Broadband Services at TeliaSonera Sweden said. “Those who choose a green alternative are choosing to make a minimum impact on the environment and help reduce the greenhouse effect.”

In fact, Telia shows many ways to use the telecom technology to save our environment. inlcuding using modern telecommunication devices to meet and talk to each other instead physically traveling from one place to another, lot of energy will be saved and pollution will be reduced.

For example, a survey conducted in Sweden indicates that business people will increase their travel by at least 30 percent in the coming years.

src: http://www.tmcnet.com/green/articles/11898-telia-goes-green.htm
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UK Firm Develops Green PC

Cranberry unveils energy-efficient SC20 Smart Client.

U.K. technology company Cranberry has developed an energy-efficient computer that it says offers businesses a greener alternative to the conventional desktop PC.

Cranberry's SC20 Smart Client computer is small -- no bigger than a paperback book, says the firm -- and uses only 10 percent of the electricity of a standard PC.

Cranberry CEO Simon Ponsford said the SC20 Smart Client "enables users to run applications wherever they like -- remotely, locally or even virtually -- and companies can control staff access to applications, data and USB devices." Because the system does not require installation and is provisioned automatically, he said it was easy to deploy.

"The real beauty of the SC20, however, is that it uses far less power than a standard computer and produces less heat, which means businesses also save on their air conditioning costs," he said.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138012-c,recycling/article.html
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Dell (DELL) set to become 'carbon neutral' in just over a year

Dell is joining the eco-group of corporate citizenry in a larger way by stating this week that it will be reducing the carbon output effects of its global operations by the end of 2008. What does this mean? Well, Dell will be tallying up all of its greenhouse emissions from all plants and facilities around the globe. It will then measure the effect of all those emissions and will develop a plan to reduce and eventually eliminate them all at some point.

In addition to the eventual elimination of greenhouse gases from factories, the computer maker will also become more energy efficient and will power operations in some areas with renewable power sources. Currently, renewable power sources popular with consumers and businesses alike include solar power and wind power.

Now, in many cases, these ecological statements are lip service for the press along with the added benefit of good PR. But, as competition intensifies, some companies actually turn "going green" into a competitive advantage while remaining competitive at a pure business level. If you were an ecologically conscious consumer deciding between a Dell "green" PC and one from competitor Acer -- with similar prices and performance -- which would you choose? Consumers are where it's at right now when it comes to PC purchases, if I'm not mistaken.

The problem so often seen is that companies really making a difference in trying to help the planet don't market those efforts to the purchasing customers, whether they be consumers or businesspeople. Dell has a chance here to make itself well-known as the "green" PC company -- I hope the company doesn't let the chance fall through the cracks.

Src: http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/09/27/dell-dell-set-to-become-carbon-neutral-in-just-over-a-year/
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What is Green Computing?

Green computing is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. Typically, technological systems or computing products that incorporate green computing principles take into account the so-called triple bottom line of economic viability, social responsibility, and environmental impact. This differs somewhat from traditional or standard business practices that focus mainly on the economic viability of a computing solution. These focuses are similar to those of green chemistry; reduction of the use of hazardous materials such as lead at the manufacturing stage, maximized energy efficiency during the product's term of use, and recyclability or biodegradability of both a defunct product and of any factory waste.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing
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