What’s become of green IT?

Pro

7 January 2011

Most people would agree it’s important for companies to do their bit to help the environment, and in better times many Irish companies made commitments to green policies in their IT departments for just this reason.

But what has happened to those promises in the face of the economic pressures those companies now face? Green IT can save a company money, but not all green policies are cost savers.

What about those aspects that don’t promise to save cash-are they being left behind? Has concern for the planet been replaced with concern for the bottom line?

“The public face of green IT is that companies want to be seen to be sensitive to issues surrounding sustainability and efficiency. But realistically, 99% of the business people we talk to want to know how to reduce their costs,” said David Quirke, chief executive officer of IT services and virtualisation specialist DNM Technology.

“The green movement is not particularly associated with dynamic and lean practices in mainstream society, but in the IT world it has become a byword for allowing firms to shave costs and become more efficient. Social awareness and the ideological end of things are still factors-for example we’re seeing it in tenders, where companies are asking hardware vendors about the carbon impact of the manufacturing process, as well as the power consumption and cooling costs of hardware. But predominantly green is about keeping costs down, and that’s never been more fashionable.”

DNM carries out green audits for its clients in which it assesses where improvements could be made in the way IT resources are deployed.

Auditing
“We look at computer rooms, servers and desktop PCs, and produce an audit report showing what the company’s carbon footprint is, where they could save money, where they could reduce emissions and so on. We sell a product called a green dashboard that allows people to see in real time what their energy usage and carbon emissions are, and hence what effect it has if one or more factor changes,” said Quirke.

“Often the inability to measure energy and carbon use is a problem. In many cases a company’s computer rooms will be on the same power supply as the whole office, so they cannot separate out the power consumption for their air conditioning units over their lights, or for floor three of a building versus floor four. We have a hardware device that captures information like this, and displays it on a web dashboard.”

Reducing power consumption is one of the most prominent ways in which applying green policies to the IT department can pay dividends. However power consumption in the IT department is often a hot potato in many companies, as traditionally power has been a facilities management issue rather than an IT issue.

Arguments
Martin Wickham, infrastructure solutions consultant for Triangle, suggests that even in cases where the IT department does not directly see the power bill, there is a good argument for trying to reduce it anyway.

“If I was a CIO today, I would be going to the senior management team and saying something like ‘we know that the business is operating in difficult times, so we’re going to make a commitment to reducing power costs in the data centre by 20% in the next year. Even though that cost is not in our budget, that’s our contribution to helping’,” he said.

“Even if power is not in your budget, the IT department can still claim the savings and collect the kudos for helping the company.”

Wickham is convinced that there is an imperative on IT to show business value if it does not want to be seen as a cost centre.

Different thinking
“If IT starts thinking this way, taking responsibility and showing leadership, then it gets more say over its fate. We want to be treated as equals by the business, so we have to show we understand business thinking. Doing things this way has a number of benefits, not least of which is that it does not cost you anything. If it’s not in your budget to begin with, then reductions don’t come out of your budget.”

“A power consumption overhaul in the data centre does not involve losing personnel. It builds good will, and I’d even go as far as saying that with the right benchmarking and the right tools, you can actually justify a technology refresh on the back of it,” he said.

Any business will look with interest at any measure that promises to reduce overheads and improve efficiencies, which certain green policies and procedures can, but often timescale is a real factor.

One significant effect of the recession has been to shorten so-called return on investment (ROI) periods, and where once investments in refreshing or upgrading IT equipment needed to pay for themselves in 24 to 36 months, today it’s expected that projects pay for themselves in 12 months or less.

“Payback periods vary from company to company,” said Tim Taylor, environment and compliance manager with Ricoh UK and Ireland.

“Everybody loves the quick wins, where savings are achieved in a few months-they’re great. But this is an ongoing process and you have to be able to think more long term and see a bigger picture. I’ve spoken to companies that have said they weren’t willing to invest in potentially cost-saving green IT because they had a policy that their ROI for any spend had to be less than 12 months.”

“Thirty six months seems like forever, but then you have to ask whether that company does not intend to be in business in 36 months time. What kind of company does not look to the future? One without one,” he said.

Re-manufacturing
Ricoh offers a range of what it terms ‘re-manufactured’ products – basically hardware which has been reconditioned and resold. It reports that attitudes to this Eco-Line product range have been universally good from customers.

“We’ve had no negative responses to it-in fact the feedback we’ve had is that lots of people love the idea and we have trouble keeping up with supply. A cynic might suggest that this is second hand technology, but actually it’s not. We take old products, strip them right back to the carcass, clean them, upgrade them and rebadge them,” said Taylor.

“There’s a cost saving on the purchase price over new equipment, and in addition there’s a CO2 reduction because the embedded footprint of the product is less than the original – you’re not using virgin materials out of the ground. We’re now working to educate customers to look after the kit they buy, because we want to get it back to recondition it afterwards.”

According to Taylor, recessions and downturns are cyclical in nature, and good business planning takes them into account.

Survivability
“It’s natural to want to economise in the short term, but you do also have to look at the medium and long term as well. If you don’t, it can mean disaster. There are still real savings which can be achieved in the real world if you’ll just take a longer view,” he said.

“When you look at the triple bottom line, people, profit and planet, it’s not just about saving the planet, it’s about having a business that’s still around in 20 years time. The trick is to look at green IT as a mechanism which can help move a business forward, and not just as a cost base.”

However the reality of the situation is that many IT departments struggling with reduced budgets just cannot afford to spend on anything which is not going to pay for itself pretty quickly.

“The day of having a business case that pays for itself over 36 months or even 24 months is pretty much gone for most companies,” said Mark McKeon, head of enterprise, servers, storage and networks at HP Ireland. “You really need to be talking sub 12 months, and for us going out to pitch for hardware refreshes, we have to have a very compelling case to make, as many companies are very slow to spend unless they really have to.”

Selling benefits
McKeon argues that it’s up to the vendor to be able to properly sell the benefits of the technology they’re offering, and that green factors are high on the list of priorities for customers.

“The data centre is where the majority of investment in IT goes these days, and from that point of view I think it’s safe to say that green IT is the number one issue. It’s a core, central issue and the reason is to do with cost and capacity,” he said.

HP believes that up to 96% of organisations will need to consider changes to their data centre infrastructure because of green considerations.

“These considerations have a strong green element, not just in terms of the cost of power, but also in terms of capacity limits, of increasing requirements for storage and computing power, and also in terms of compliance and regulatory obligations around CO2 emissions which may or may not have financial penalties,” said McKeon.

“Irish companies are very savvy about this-green IT is no longer a new topic on the agenda, it’s been central to the conversation for some time. The onus is on us as vendors to explain what special advantages we can bring to the table in this area compared to the next guy looking for their business, and how we can help them.”

Demand for green IT stems from a number of sources and while pressure to cut costs is prominent, there are other drivers.

Demand drivers
“Mostly we’re seeing green friendly policies appearing in the context of organisations looking to achieve cost savings, but there is demand for green IT coming from other directions,” said Patrick Irwin, senior product manager for Citrix Systems.

“In the public sector, it’s often coming from a compliance point of view, where there is a directive that needs to be complied with to lower carbon emissions, for example. In the private sector, we’re seeing some businesses that just want to take an ethical stand and be seen to be green, either for reasons of branding or because it matters in some way to the managers and owners.”

It seems that only the largest companies can afford to remain committed to ideologically driven approaches to the environment. For everyone else, cost savings, regulatory compliance and future proofing the business remain the key motivations for engaging with sustainability and energy usage awareness.

“Leading a green policy on the basis, that it’s the right thing, to do probably is not going to be the smartest move, but leading with the idea that you’re going to establish credibility by saving money in a way that’s also good for the environment – well, that’s going to get a different response,” said Martin Wickham of Triangle.

“And it’s also going to make it possible to get less obvious cost savers through in the long run. Deliver the benefit and let that speak for you. If you go in as a tree hugger to a corporation to talk about sustainability being good for the planet, you’re probably not going to get a warm response because the reality is that many such companies are doing their best to survive. It’s all about the politics of organisations and how IT plays its role.”

Read More:


Back to Top ↑

TechCentral.ie