'Greenwashing' is a fairly new term that has been coined to describe organisations and products professing their green credentials, with no substance or data to back them up. We see this on an almost daily basis, ranging from hardware, software and even services organisations claiming to have the lowest carbon footprint or the most energy efficient device.
In reality we are becoming jaded with what many unfortunately believe to be a green fad. A university in the US has even put the terms 'going green' and 'carbon footprint' on their list of words they would most like to see struck from the English language in 2009. What is clear, however, is that the green credentials of organisations and products need to be examined more carefully and measurable criteria need to be established to ensure you are not caught up in the hype.
Green IT and the associated technologies have yet to take significant root within South Africa, although this landscape is rapidly changing, according to green IT specialists, sustainableIT. Tim James, one of the founding directors, believes the economic fundamentals and energy crisis within South Africa will play an important role in driving green initiatives within business, particularly solutions that offer measurable paybacks.
SustainableIT has recently published a white paper: 'Enterprise PC Power Management - methods to maximise energy and cost efficiencies in distributed networks'. James states that the distributed PC environment has largely been ignored by organisations looking to improve energy efficiency, most efforts have gone into greening the data centre. 'With PCs in most organisations being left on overnight for patching and management purposes, it stands to reason that most of the energy in ICT is consumed here. This is backed up by Gartner data stating that 39% of the energy in a typical IT department is consumed by PCs and monitors. In reality, simple solutions exist to automatically power down and power up infrastructure, saving significant energy and cost,' James elaborates.
The white paper explores methods open to IT departments to improve the energy efficiency within their PC networks, paying particular attention to the solution set offered by sustainableIT's business partner 1E. James unashamedly admits that the white paper is focused on explaining the benefits of the 1E technology versus Microsoft native power management features and 'home grown' solutions. '1E with NightWatchman are the world leaders in enterprise PC power management. NightWatchman, now in its fifth generation and deployed on over 2.5 million workstations, is without doubt the enterprise leader in solutions focused on PC power management,' he concludes.
The 1E solution available through sustainableIT provides ICT departments with an opportunity to make a significant impact on the bottom line and begin the green journey, with measurable success. What sets it apart from other green solutions is built-in reporting, which demonstrate exactly the savings and CO2 reductions that are being generated by the deployment of the solution. Payback periods are typically under 12 months, which will only improve as Eskom's tariffs increase in the foreseeable future.
The white paper can be downloaded at http://www.sustainableIT.co.za.
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