Green IT
Green IT can enable your organisation to have less of an impact upon the environment. Here are some examples of how this can happen.
Green IT - Smaller is Better
A PC and monitor uses 1.8 metric tonnes of fossil fuels, chemicals and water at the manufacturing stage [1] but using a thin-client device can drastically reduce this and have lasting benefits for your organization
By using terminal services, small, low power devices can be deployed on the users’ desks instead of a PC. Less energy is consumed by these devices, there is less noise as there are no cooling fans, they emit less heat requiring less energy to cool the office and because they are much smaller they require less resource in the manufacturing stage. Other benefits? With fewer moving parts and no hard disk they are also more reliable and have a longer life than a normal PC leading to even less manufacturing resource being required and less e-waste.
Green IT - Less is More
Every server virtualized with VMware is equivalent to removing 4 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the environment or taking 1.5 cars off the road annually [2]
By utilising virtualisation you need fewer physical servers leading to lower energy usage, lower resource usage in the manufacturing stage and lower cooling requirements, but you can still maintain performance levels. You will utilise the resources of a virtual infrastructure more fully and therefore increase energy efficiency for each physical server within the infrastructure. Many organisations concerned with reducing their carbon footprint are adopting virtualisation and are saving money in the process.
Green IT - Travel Less and Do More
Increased home working has the potential to cut the worst peak traffic by up to 10% within five years – a reduction that would save 14.5 billion miles a year. This equates to 17 million cars foregoing a trip from Land’s End to John O’Groats [3]
By having an efficient wide-area network and remote access facilities it is possible to reduce the need for travel between your sites and between the home and office. This has benefits for your organisation’s carbon footprint, the quality of life of your employees (and consequent productivity and staff retention rates) and costs (due to decreased need for office space and the associated costs). Wanstor specialise in wide-area networking and can deploy remote access, Voice Over IP (VOIP) and collaboration solutions for your organisation which enable connections to systems and people wherever there is internet access.
[1] UN University Report, 2004
[2] VMware
[3] BT