Green IT is easy

By Candice Jones for IBM
Johannesburg, 15 May 2008

Most companies can go green - or at least reduce power usage - with the IT they have, say experts at IBM and Fujitsu Siemens Computers. They also caution against vendor punts that amount to throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Fujitsu Siemens alliance director Danny de Beer and IBM modular systems platform manager Andrew Soddy say few companies can afford to ditch their existing equipment and fewer can justify doing so to shareholders.

"Green IT makes a huge amount of financial sense. IT is responsible for the same amount of emissions as the airline industry, which is quite frightening really," De Beer says.

"If you can throw stuff away because you can cost-justify it... and that's the key... then do it," says De Beer. "But generally you can't throw away something that still has a book value; the financial director won't allow it..."

Soddy says companies can generally go green with what they have. "For most people it's just a matter of turning on management tools. There is nothing stopping you from including virtualisation technology in the kit you already have. Virtualisation tech is practically system-agnostic," Soddy adds.

De Beer says in one public sector server consolidation, the result was a 70% power saving.

He adds most people are concerned about climate change and its impact on humanity, but - of necessity - have to put business concerns first. He says most business leaders polled on the subject put their concerns about meeting payrolls, dealing with suppliers, and coping with regulatory issues first.

They will also tend to go for green solutions if it is roughly priced the same as the "non-green" equivalent. "Companies don't go green because of a sense of responsibility but out of necessity... this whole movement started in Europe, especially the Nordic countries when they absolutely drove vendors to supply green IT."

More must also be done to recycle. De Beer says it is "incredibly difficult to get rid of IT equipment these days".

However, he notes help may be at hand. Fujitsu Siemens is joining Massmart retailer Makro in a recycling project that will allow consumers to dump old IT and electronics at designated locations at no charge.

"People don't understand how much incorrect disposal of IT equipment affects the water table," adds Soddy. "IBM has a finance system where you can recycle technology and replace it with discrete boxes that can be set up in a payment plan over time. We will dispose of the old equipment in the right way."