What is green IT?

Green IT is a collection of strategic and tactical initiatives to enforce the

followings
1. Directly reduce carbon footprint of the organizations IT operation.
2. Use the services of IT to help reduce organizations overall carbon footprint.
3. Motivate and support greener behavior by employees, customers and suppliers.
4. Ensure the sustainability of the resource used by IT.
How to find the current green-ness of an organisation?
1. Measure data center electricity usage.
2. Use manufactures ratings of their equipment to find out about their energy
consumption. it is not always easy to find the ratings for every device.

Green data centers

Koomey suggests that worldwide servers are consuming 120 TWh of electricity. GeSI
suggests that data centers will consume approx. 18% of the ICT sectors carbon
footprint by 2020.
Modern data centers have 2 layers of infrastructure.
1. The IT infrastructure
2. Facilities infrastructure
Key elements of IT infrastructure of a data centers
1. Server design
2. The role of networking within data center
3. The role of storage and types of storage provisions
4. Changing shapes of data center and IT platform

Servers
Rack-mounted servers
Self-contained individual machines with power and networking cabling for each unit.
sizes: 19in or 23in.
Better suited for low-density environments.
Standard rack-server container and mounting system standard dictates 42 units per
container.

Blade server
Housed within a blade system container, which is mounted in a standard cabinet.
The blade system provides power and cabling for all blade servers housed within the
system.
Onboard cooling and uninterruptible power supply requirements also may be provided by
the blade cabinet system.
Better suited for high-density environment.
In a standard rack, 128 blade servers can be housed. (42 for rack servers)

Containers
Shipped inside a standard-sized transport container.
Designed to be self-contained.
Their energy and connectivity requirements are known upfront.
Modularization in design from racks through to containers allows for rapid scaling and
easy replacement.

1
Current data centers using vast amount of energy on servers, fans, consoles, monitors,
lights and cooling systems all day and every day.
Since data centers require high uptime, many systems run continuously regardless of
usage. Redundant systems designed for improved reliability and security also consume
large amounts of electricity in their own right.

Advantages of using green data centers

1. Reducing the environmental impact of data centers
a. Using energy efficient components.

b. Using newer equipment they are more capable and more energy efficient.

2. Using less energy with virtualization

a. Able to run multiple pieces of software on the same server or group of
servers will reduce the overall cost of data centers.

3. Turning off unused servers or dead servers

a. If data center servers are not 100 percent utilized, then some severs are
sitting idle and consuming energy for no reason.

b. Using tools to identify and turning them off or repurpose them.

4. Storage consolidation
a. Some storage units are never used. By profiling storage usage, one can
identify duplicate data, old data and unused data. With energy and cost
profiles of storage equipment, one can make decisions on consolidation.

5. Assets reconfiguration
a. Using energy management software and techniques to identify and observe
energy usage patterns of data center assets. Assigning a correct energy
profile for an asset will reduce the energy consumption with great
margin.

b. Sentilla has observed that when file servers are configured to go on low
power mode on nights and weekends, 33% of energy usage was saved.

Green business
Green business is an enterprise that has no negative impact on the global or local
environment, community, society or economy.

Classifying green business

1. It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business
decisions.

2. It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replace demand

for non-green products.

3. It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principals in its business

operation.

Green computing
Green computing is the scientific study of efficient and effective designing,
manufacturing, using, disposing and recycling of computers and computer related
products like servers, network systems, communication systems, peripheral devices and
software alike.

Ways to achieve green computing

1. Reduce energy consumption of equipment as well as using them in an efficient
manner.

2
 2. Refurbishing and reusing old equipment.
3. Properly disposing and recycling unwanted computers and other equipment.
4. Designing energy efficient and environmentally sound computers and peripherals.
5. Manufacturing computers and components with minimal environmental effect.

Tips on going green

1. Make changes one at a time.
2. Refrain from printing unnecessary items use electronic document features.
3. Use recycled products when possible.
4. Replace old CRT monitors with LCD/LED monitors.
5. Dispose old electronics via electronic recycle programs.
6. Turnoff equipment and devices (lights and air conditioning) when not in use.
7. Use low powered devices when applicable / possible like use laptop instead of
desktop if possible.
8. Use good power management profiles on computers.
9. Shutdown / hibernate computers when not in use.
10. Encourage telecommuting.
11. Virtualize.
12. But refurbished equipment.

Virtualization
Virtualization is a consolidation of servers and systems to reduce power consumption
and energy utilization. It leads to usage of more than one system on a single piece of
physical hardware.

Benefits of virtualization
1. Power conservation fewer servers means overall reduced power consumption.
2. Manufacturing less need for new systems to be built.
3. External factors less space needed in an office or data centers, and less IT
staff to manage multiple systems.

Refurbished equipment
Refurbished equipment is a used equipment that has been cleaned, tested, reconfigured
and warranted for further use.
Difference between used and refurbished equipment:

Used Refurbished
Not cleaned Cleaned
Not tested (sold as-is) Tested
Not updated Updated
No warranty Warranted

Benefits of refurbished equipment

1. Cost saving / cost effective.
2. Reliable
a. Undergoes thorough testing.
b. Enough time for any manufacturing defects to be identified and repaired.
c. Fairly new equipment still has several years of usability.

3. Availability
a. Faster acquisition and turnaround time.
b. Abundance of equipment to choose from.

4. Performance
a. Cleaned and tested for performance capabilities.

3
 b. Equivalent to new equipment with the same config.
c. Purchased from reputable resellers.

5. Value
a. No value lost at the time of purchase.
b. Get more for your money.

6. Environmental friendly
a. Reduce overall carbon footprint.
b. Less energy used and fewer carbon emission by offsetting manufacturing
need.
c. Saves from extracting resources for the purpose of building and shipping
new equipment.

Reuse, Recycling and Repurposing

Mainly age and condition will decide whether to recycle, reuse or repurpose it.
1. If the system is too old, there is no way but to recycle it.

2. Older components or even relatively newer components with hazardous chemicals

must be carefully recycled. If it is about to be reused, then there has to be a
way to measure the impact and usability of the components.

3. Relatively newer equipment can be reused in its original condition without any
modifications for the same purpose.

4. More specialized equipment can be repurposed using the equipment in a way not
originally intended. E.g. using old tabs as portable CCTV cam viewer.

5. If the equipment can be used but in a bad shape or condition, then it can be
refurbished and used. Refurbished.