Green IT

"Green IT" describes a number of programs in which CIOs can achieve:

• Compliance with environmental regulations
• Environmental responsibility in the use of information technology resources
• Cost savings through power and air conditioning reductions

Successful implementation of Green IT programs can reduce an enterprise's use of fossil fuels, quantities of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, consumption of basic raw materials, amounts of materials going to landfills, and exposure to unhealthy or toxic materials.

Some simple concrete benefits of "Going Green" include:

• Reduced energy bills
• Reduced number of physical systems to maintain
• Less physical space dedicated to hardware
• More desk space for employees
• Less traffic on the road

The problem space is large. Eighty percent of businesses have never conducted an energy audit and only 29 percent of businesses are investing in energy-efficient PCs, according to C|Net News. The Gartner Group has projected that half of the world's data centers will experience power shortages in the next two years

CollabWorks has defined an emerging project for Green IT in which enterprise CIOs can collaborate on solutions that improve environmental responsibility and decrease costs. The project is beginning with baseline assessments and scoring of enterprise readiness. Through the identification of common areas of interest, and of common weaknesses, the participating CIOs have the opportunity to prioritize and develop a number of important solutions. Some of the solutions currently being evaluated include:

• Best practices for measurement of energy consumption within data centers
• Accurate hardware and software inventories benchmarking performance against other data centers
• Virtualization technology, for consolidation of services and reduction of power consumption in server farms
• Collaborative evaluations of more energy efficient hardware, such as EnergyStar desktops, monitors, and servers, and strategies for replacement
• Evaluation of construction techniques for efficient, green data center buildings
• Policies for employee utilization of IT systems—in both personal use and data center operations—to reduce waste
• Strategies for reconditioning and recycling IT equipment, to reduce costs and "e-waste"
• Common "green" purchasing standards for hardware, supplies, and services
• Collaborative evaluations of thin client computing technology and practices
• Evaluation of collaboration systems to enhance the viability of telecommuting and to reduce requirements for business travel
• Strategies for implementing the "paperless office".