Question: Identify some of the Green IT practices being followed by any company of your choice to offset the adverse impact of their business on the environment. Please provide the benefits of using Green IT practices in quantitative numbers/statistics (e.g., reduced energy consumption by 25%)
ANSWER:
Introduction: Green computing objective is to minimize the negative impact of IT operations on the environment by designing/manufacturing, operating and disposing of computers and computer-related products in an environmentally-friendly manner. Green computing in the organisations/companies is an emerging discipline and issues related with it are of growing concern for the business, social and environmental impact in the current century. Sustainability factor of the software is becoming an important topic in IT to safeguard any company’s future, and as evolving market segment. There is an increase in green jobs in the organisations is also occurring with many of those associated with information technology. The main constraint/issue with green jobs related with IT is finding educated and qualified professionals. There is a growing/increasing demand for green computing information system education.
Concept & Application: Company Infosys has implemented following Green IT practices to offset the adverse impact of their business on the environment:
- Cloud computing: Cloud computing reduce the energy costs and it also minimizes the time required to maintain a company’s proprietary systems. Main benefit is that users can select precisely the performance they need. Infosys resources can hence be activated and deactivated to meet current requirements of the organisation. Organisation users only pay for what they actually consume, cutting back on costs for dormant server capacity. Such kind of data centre is usually more energy-efficient, as they are maintained as state-of-the-art facilities. In cloud computing, it is not necessary for the organisation to activate all servers continuously, as the users share technical components. We know that there can be various type of cloud-based collaboration tools like Office 365, Google Drive/Dropbox allow colleagues to work efficiently, wherever they are, while companies save costs on high-performance and energy-guzzling hardware. Usage of Cloud computing by the organisation offers ideal conditions for eco-friendly, resource-preserving IT management. Many companies do not require most of their server rooms, which means it is not only ecologically sensible, but also economically profitable to shut them down and switch to the cloud.
- Server Virtualization: Ideal Resource Utilization: In many organisations, it is noted that many data centers to discover that several servers are responsible for just a few tasks. For instance, one server in the department may be principally deployed for Windows and web usage, additional server for Linux and the next server for SQL databases. Such type of action of the organisation puts data centre utilization at no more than 40 percent. Infosys resources such as computing power, storage, network and security are cleverly distributed among the available services. The virtualization software in the organisation ensures that various operating systems and applications run ‘separately’ on a physical host. Such actions make the data centers significantly more efficient and increases utilization to as much as 55 percent. The hardware of the organisations can draw on its full potential so that fewer servers are needed by the organisation. Such action reduces electricity consumption of the organisation, which is good for the environment and has a pleasing side-effect for the company/organisation accounts. Lately, server virtualization in the organisations has now spread to many areas of data centers. Now, the next challenge is to virtualize business-critical/production-relevant workloads.
- Skype, Modern Cooling & Co: Digitization/big data call for increasingly high-performance server rooms in many companies/organisations. Such steps lead to spiralling energy consumption, which in turn impacts the environment and generates additional costs for the organisation. Organisation innovative cooling and ventilation methods help to reduce the energy costs substantially. Modern data centers can operate without a hitch in rooms at temperatures of up to 35-36°C. The average is around 22-23°C. It also offers significant savings potential and an effective contribution to green IT is quite simply modern software. Availability of Skype for Business ease the strain on the business coffers additionally.
Benefits of using green practices are narrated below:
- Green Practices of Infosys provides lower energy consumption. Company Infosys is using around 30 % energy purchased either from the wind energy or hydro power producers. Company has also installed solar power plants which are producing around 55 Mw of electricity annually.
- Infosys has placed Chillers in existing buildings which they have replaced with efficient variable primary systems. Departments now use water-cooled chillers, reducing their energy consumption by 50%. Such type of innovative sustained improvements in new buildings and retrofits over the last decade have reduced the monthly energy consumption per employee by around 55%. It has saved enormous capital savings for Infosys and also reduced maintenance overheads as well as enhanced employee health and productivity.
- Infosys’s has achieved an Energy Performance Index (EPI) of around 70 kWh/sqm/year in new buildings which is half the consumption in conventional buildings. Company has kept their target for Lighting design which must meet the 0.5 W/sft benchmark and cooling capacity is capped at 750 TR/sft.
Conclusion: Green IT practices are being implemented in the organisations to minimize the negative impact of IT operations on the environment by designing, manufacturing, operating and disposing of computers and computer-related products in an environmentally-friendly manner. The objectives behind green IT practices include reducing the use of hazardous materials, maximizing energy efficiency during the product’s lifetime and promoting the biodegradability of unused and outdated products. When we execute green IT practices properly then it means healthcare organizations see fewer bills, contribute lower levels of carbon emissions, and enjoy an easier transition into mandated practices. Organisations must consider sustainability as making decisions based the ethics and responsibility of their business, from our ecological footprint to our global business practices.
