How Organizations are Contributing to the ‘Green Computing’ Movement

Organizations in a variety of industries and sectors have spared no effort to reduce the operational expenses associated with information technology (i.e. cloud migration, work from home and BYOD). One method that has recently achieved a level of prominence is green computing, or green IT.

The concept of green IT or the ‘Green Computing’ movement was conceived with the launch of Energy Star in 1992 under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to TechTarget. However, it’s become more relevant with time, as an increasing number of organizations digitize their operations.

For the sake of cutting operational costs, let’s look at a few tips that can help an organization scale back energy consumption.

Invest in Smart IT Infrastructure

In 2014 (last year data is available), data centers and server rooms consumed 70 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. While much of this spend is unavoidable, some of it goes to waste on inefficiencies in how data centers are managed. For example, a study by the Natural Resource Defense Council estimates that there are about 3.6 million zombies servers in the U.S. These non-essential systems continue to consume energy, often because they’ve simply been forgotten about, eating up the equivalent of about $30 billion worldwide.

Another significant operational expense in data centers and server rooms is air conditioning, which is responsible for about 40 percent of total energy consumption in data centers, according to Data Center Knowledge contributor Phil Koblence.

To alleviate these problems, IT teams have begun relying more heavily on smarter infrastructure solutions, such as power distribution units equipped with power monitoring. Optimizing airflow for hot- and cold-aisle setups can also scale back energy consumption by helping to more efficiently expel hot air from server rooms. These are just a few among a multitude of methodologies that can help IT managers curb energy expenses without negatively impacting IT performance and worker productivity.

Green Computing with Power Management Initiatives

Idle computers are another significant source of energy waste in organizations.

Data centers and server rooms are hardly the only IT energy hogs in an organization. In California, for example, “computers, monitors and signage displays” account for about 5 percent of the state’s total annual energy consumption. It’s a safe bet that all of those computers, laptops and tablets in Silicon Valley aren’t doing the Golden State any favors in terms of reducing electricity loads. But it’s a guarantee that the companies operating these computers stand to gain from cutting out extraneous energy usage.

Perhaps the best way to realize these savings is with power management software. Faronics Deep Freeze Cloud has a comprehensive power management utility, that lets administrators automatically shut down devices that are left running after regular business hours. To avoid disrupting workers who stay late, the utility has an override feature that allows users to extend their sessions as long as they need. But if that user forgets to shut down their system after he or she leaves, it will automatically kick into action after a certain period of inactivity elapses.

Other benefits of power management solutions, include the ability to conduct energy audits and the convenience of an intuitive, web-based dashboard.

To learn more about how power management can jumpstart your green IT initiatives and save money, contact Faronics today.