CHAPTER 5: MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
As the Green IT process is implemented and matures, it is useful to look at areas where management can help drive improvements.
Tone from the top
It is critical that senior management support Green IT. If they are unwavering in their words and deeds then staff will realize that this is a true management priority and not just a fad that can be ignored.
To facilitate senior management support, their input should be sought in terms of their expectations and reporting needs. IT should then pursue courses of action and report back what is being done to meet those expectations.
Care must be taken to communicate information to senior management and not just broadcast volumes of content at them. By understanding what they need and then presenting that to them in a manner that is clear, concise and makes prudent use of their time, then they will be in a far better position to understand what is going on and provide the needed support.
IT Asset Management (ITAM)
To optimize asset utilization, at the device, data center and IT service levels, and ensure that appropriate total cost and total benefit decisions are made throughout the life cycle of assets, management needs to implement the discipline of ITAM. By spanning the decision-making process from strategy, through to how they are procured, inventoried, put into production, and ultimately decommissioned, ITAM can dramatically help IT organizations in the pursuit of Green IT objectives.
Institute a “Turn it off” campaign
Staff need to realize that if IT hardware doesn’t need to be running then it should not be. This may range from powering down standby servers and test servers, shutting off PCs, lights and peripherals at night.
An awareness campaign can remind IT personnel and users of the benefits to the organization and the environment. This simple approach has very low implementation costs and very real savings8.
Taking it a step further, there are devices now ranging from surge strips to light switches that can sense when someone is present and then after a delay cut power to one or more devices thus automating matters and increasing the likelihood of reductions in power demand.
Incentive programs
Increasingly there are tax incentives from governments to help entice organizations to reduce energy demands. For example, in the US, there are states and municipalities granting incentives for compliance with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System9.
There are also incentives from electrical utilities to help reduce demand. By providing financial incentives to organizations to reduce their number of servers through consolidation, virtualization and so forth, they hope to avoid building additional generation facilities that will not yield as good a return on investment.
Data center strategy
The overall strategy of the data center needs to be reviewed. Studies by Gartner and other analyst firms are indicating that 70% of the Global 1000’s data centers will need to be replaced during the next four years to meet projected energy and cooling demands10.
With this in mind, management needs to assess the current state of the data center and determine the most cost-effective go-forward strategy for the data center bearing in mind that large data centers can now cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Update existing data center(s)
The first approach is to identify improvement opportunities in the existing data center(s) and prioritize improvements based on costs and benefits – both in terms of risk reduction and true hard accounting cost benefits. In some cases, the life of a data center can be extended. In others the required updates will not be cost effective.
Colocation
The second approach is to outsource the colocation of servers to firms that have the resources necessary to host the CIs in question11. This must be done on the basis of technical and business requirements while also factoring in costs and risks.
Build a new center
Another option is to build a new data center. New data centers can cost hundreds of millions of dollars depending on the levels of power and cooling infrastructure required. This level of capital investment should require careful oversight by the board and management. It should also require due diligence in terms of justifying the costs and benefits as opposed to approvals based on nebulous reasons.
Provided that a new data center is approved, this could present an opportunity to consolidate underutilized data centers, exploit new more efficient facilities technologies, locate in an area of lower electrical costs and a climate that enables the ability to leverage relatively low outdoor temperatures via economizers to get some degree of “free” cooling. Again, total costs, total benefits and associated risks must be assessed to determine if this is the correct approach for the organization.
Hybrid approach
The last option is a combination of the previous approaches. This may be necessary based on timing, resource availability, costs, etc. The organization must understand, given their unique position, the pros and cons of the potential hybrid approach.
Processes
Even though the Green IT process and process integration were covered previously, it is very important to re-affirm the need for processes. By formalizing processes, assigning roles and responsibilities, collecting data, reviewing metrics and taking corrective actions, an organization can evolve its practices to meet its changing needs. By viewing Green IT as a process, it can integrate with other process areas to greatly improve how IT creates and protect value.
8 See www.computersoff.org/ for more details about a campaign in Australia.
9 Visit the US Green Building Council for more information about the program at: www.usgbc.org/.
10 Green IT: Immediate Issues for Users to Focus On, Rakesh Kumar, Gartner, 7 August 2008.
11 In ITIL®, a CI can be any hardware, software, IT service, etc. Servers, switches, firewalls, storage area networks, and so forth are all CIs.