Home > Articles > Networking > Storage

The Importance of Green IT

  • Apr 17, 2009

📄 Contents

␡
  1. The Growing Significance of Green IT and Green Data Centers
  2. All Companies Can Take Basic Steps Toward Green IT
  3. What This Book Covers
John Lamb, author of The Greening of IT, explains the basic environmental impact of IT — including data centers’ consumption of fossil fuel-based electric energy — and lays the foundation for solutions to those problems.
This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Greening of IT, The: How Companies Can Make a Difference for the EnvironmentGreening of IT, The: How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment

Learn More Buy

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Greening of IT, The: How Companies Can Make a Difference for the EnvironmentGreening of IT, The: How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment

Learn More Buy

Editor's Note: For more information on Green IT from John Lamb, see also:

“As more and more people understand what’s at stake, they become a part of the solution, and share both in the challenges and opportunities presented by the climate crises.”
Al Gore on global warming

Information Technology (IT) is at the heart of every successful modern business. Without it, success is impossible. Yet, the pervasive deployment of IT has had significant, unintended side effects, namely as a significant contributor to the economically unsustainable worldwide dependence on fossil fuels. The awareness of these side effects, though somewhat late in coming, has led some successful companies to turn to a sustainable practice known as “IT greening.” IT greening is about using IT more efficiently to achieve reductions in energy consumption, and therefore, considering the acquisition of energy-efficient IT solutions. Within this book, you can find details on the environmental impact of IT, including data centers’ consumption of fossil fuel-based electric energy. In addition, we examine many case studies, extracting lessons learned and best practices for implementing green IT.

IT is so pervasive that energy efficiency through the implementation of green IT has moved to center stage for many companies in their pursuit of environmentally helpful practices. This book provides details on the importance of implementing green IT; the significant and growing role of IT and data centers in the world’s consumption of electric energy and carbon footprint; and especially the case studies for “lessons learned” and the best-practice approaches for implementing green IT.

As I mentioned in the Preface, green IT is an ideal way for most companies to make a significant step in reducing their carbon footprint for several reasons. First, for competitive reasons, most companies already refresh their computer hardware—laptops, desktops, servers, and storage devices—every three to four years. That refresh cycle provides a recurring opportunity to buy increasingly energy-efficient technology, such as virtual servers, virtual networks, and virtual data storage. Such virtualization can easily reduce IT power consumption for the replaced equipment by up to 50 percent. (For examples, refer to the Environmental Protection Agency’s [EPA] “Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency” or the reports by Jonathan Koomey listed in the Bibliography.) A second compelling reason to move to green IT is that virtualization technology enables you to reduce equipment and system management costs for your data center. Data center green technology is based on a solid business case—even before we consider the savings due to reduced energy costs. A third reason for moving to green IT is that all large companies are moving to such implementation improvements (in IT virtualization, cloud computing, and so on). In addition to information on IT virtualization, this book also includes information on new energy-efficient cooling technologies that support IT, and the impact of electric utility-rate case incentives and government incentives and regulations on promoting IT energy efficiency.

Green IT has many different aspects. In this book, we use the terms green IT, green computing, and green data centers. Green IT—as used here—is the most comprehensive because it includes all computing, inside and outside the data center. The emphasis of our discussion is on the business aspects of green IT, so the focus is on what to do, rather than the details of how to do it. However, several chapters, especially the case studies, do give details on how to implement green IT, using best practices based on recent experience and lessons learned through dealing with many companies and organizations throughout the world.

In the following chapters, we look at the benefits and roadblocks in moving to green IT, including the following:

  1. Organizational issues in addressing the problem (for example, CIO doesn’t pay the electricity bill).
  2. The future of regulations as external factors for change.
  3. Overall motivation for executives to move to green IT.
  4. Evaluation of product end of life and asset disposal, procurement policies, and supply-chain issues (solutions to avoid climate impact, and such).

Executives have one significant aspect of motivation to move to green IT that is not covered in any depth in this book, and that is the area of corporate social responsibility. A growing body of evidence shows that companies can do well by doing good. In fact, books have been written about this corporate motivation for going green. (See the reference to Green to Gold in the Bibliography.) The Internet’s ubiquitous connectivity has created new relationships among businesses, customers, employees, and partners. People now have access to massive amounts of information and opinions about products and company practices. This information is available in every part of the globe, every minute of every day. Collaboration over the Internet is taking place during a time of increased visibility of corporate actions, a time when customers’ perceptions of companies—and their consequent purchasing behaviors—are fundamentally changing. Thus, having your company become part of the green wave (to use a term used in the Green to Gold book) should be an additional motivation (besides the standard business case) for companies to pursue green IT.

Although this book emphasizes the business aspects, rather than the technical aspects, of green IT, several chapters give technical details, including the case study chapters (Chapters 9, 10, and 11). I’m an engineer by training, and I’m fascinated by the technical aspects of green IT. The energy used for green IT and green data centers is electricity, so I would like to give a brief review of the familiar electricity concepts and relationship of volts, amps, and watts, which are fundamental in our quest to reduce energy used for green IT. The relationship between volts, amps, and watts is this: watts = volts × amps. A watt is the measure of electrical power. Energy is power over a unit of time. We pay for electricity in terms of energy used with a measure of kilowatt hours or KWH. One kilo watt hour (KWH) of electrical energy is the energy used by having 10 one-hundred-watt light bulbs on for one hour. In the New York City area, one KWH costs about 20 cents, whereas in West Virginia, a KWH costs only about 5 cents. The big difference in cost is due to the big difference in generation costs. With the high cost of electricity, the region of the country is becoming a significant factor in deciding where to locate a new data center.

Besides the cost per KWH, another aspect of basic electricity to consider for your data center is the voltage level. In the United States, we typically have two voltages to use in our homes, offices, and data centers: 110 volts or 220 volts. The actual volts can fluctuate somewhat during the day (as you can discover using a simple voltmeter), and electrical engineers often give the two voltages available as 120V or 208V. If you have an electric range, an electric clothes dryer, or a large electric air conditioner in your home, they’ll be connected to the higher 208V service. The reason is that they need more power; using a higher voltage gives more power and also saves energy. Higher voltage saves energy because the formula for electric losses due to transmission over a wire is I2 R, where I represents amps, and R is the fixed resistance of the wire. Because watts = volts × amps, we can double the power (watts) by doubling the volts or doubling the amps. However, doubling the amps would increase the losses by four times. Thus, to transmit electricity over long distances, the practice is to increase the voltage as much as possible. In high-tension towers, the voltage is often as high as 120,000 volts, and even in the power lines outside our houses, the voltage is often 4,000 volts. That voltage drops to 110V for use in our houses to reduce danger of electrocution. As noted, 220V power is used only for electric ranges, clothes dryers, and so on, although in Europe, the base power is 220V. One easy way to reduce energy transmission losses at data centers is to use 220V (208V) service. Higher input voltage results in more-efficient operation. Most servers (just like our laptops or hair dryers) are capable of either 110V or 220V service. Older data centers often have 110V power sources for servers, but switching to 220V (208V) would provide significant savings. This change in voltage at data centers to reduce energy use is mentioned in several places throughout the book.

The Growing Significance of Green IT and Green Data Centers

Much of the emphasis in the following chapters is on data centers because they almost always represent the starting point for green IT initiatives for companies. Data centers—the facilities that primarily contain electronic equipment used for data processing, data storage, and communications networking—have become common and essential to the functioning of business, communications, academic, and governmental systems. Data centers have been growing and expanding quickly as our economy continues to shift from paper-based to digital information management. The U.S. EPA’s 2007 “Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency” estimated that the energy use of the nation’s servers and data centers doubled from 2000 to 2006 to approximately 61 billion KWH. Under current efficiency trends, national energy consumption by servers and data centers could nearly double again by 2011 to more than 100 billion KWH, representing a $7.4 billion annual electricity cost.

Data centers are found in nearly every sector of the economy, including financial services, media, high-tech, universities, and government institutions. Dramatic server growth at data centers is indicated by well-known web services such as Google, Amazon, and eBay. Estimates indicate that Google maintains more than 450,000 servers, arranged in racks located in clusters in cities around the world. Google has major data centers in California, Virginia, Georgia, and Ireland, and new facilities in Oregon and Belgium. In 2009, Google is planning to open one of its first sites in the upper Midwest in Council Bluffs, Iowa, close to abundant wind power resources for fulfilling green energy objectives and proximate to fiber optic communications links. For additional information on the positioning of new data centers close to abundant renewable electric power sources, see Appendix C, “Comparison of Different Power-Generation Methods.” Amazon.com and eBay also have thousands of servers. It is estimated that the Second Life Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003 has more than 9,000 servers. Even with these large numbers of current servers, IBM consultants estimates that in the next decade, server shipments will grow by six times and data storage by an amazing 69-fold.

Green energy-efficient data centers can help us reduce greenhouse gases—which, in turn, can help reduce global warming. The recent UN and White House sessions on climate change emphasize the environmental importance of green projects. Although the extent of the global warming danger might continue to be open to debate, implementing green data centers presents a significant opportunity for all of us to help reduce greenhouse gasses.

In many instances—such as building alternative energy sources by implementing solar panels, or wind turbines—going green has not been economical and can be justified only by government or energy utility rebates. Yet implementing green data centers can be quite financially rewarding—especially when you go first after the low-hanging fruit. As I’ve indicated throughout this book, going to green IT is a win/win for all parties involved. Energy expenditures for IT keep increasing. Figures mentioned previously bear repeating. According to the research firm IDC: By 2010, for every $1 spent on hardware, 70 cents will be spent on power and cooling, and by 2012, for every $1 spent on hardware, $1 will be spent on power and cooling. Green IT has generated significant customer interest throughout the world. Much of the interest comes from the financial return on green data center investment.

Here is a general definition of a green data center: A repository for the storage, management, and dissemination of data in which the mechanical, lighting, electrical, and computer systems are designed for maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact. The construction and operation of a green data center involve use of advanced technologies and strategies. The strategies and goals include the following:

  • Minimizing the footprints of the buildings
  • Using low-emission building materials, carpets, and paints
  • Creating sustainable landscaping
  • Initiating waste recycling
  • Installing catalytic converters on backup generators
  • Using alternative energy technologies such as photovoltaics (PVs) and fuel cells
  • Increasing the efficiency of heat pumps, variable speed fans, and free-cooling technology

However, in the following chapters, we concentrate on the ways data centers can become more energy efficient by first exploring the low-hanging fruit. The basic technologies that we should first examine for existing data centers range from the use of efficient cooling towers and variable speed blowers to the use of energy-efficient IT systems, such as virtual servers, blade centers, and virtual data storage. Server consolidation—although initially undertaken to save server hardware capital—is also an excellent way to reduce server energy use. A step way beyond server consolidation is data center consolidation—also done to reduce facility and personnel resource cost; however, a significant side effect is reduced data center energy use. Most data centers have already started to employ newer IT technology such as virtual servers or server consolidation, so this book first explores the technologies that have already started to be employed at your data center for capital cost-saving—and discuss the ways this same technology can significantly reduce energy use. The experiences described in the case studies presented in later chapters are a way to leverage those lessons learned for your data center.

Many consultant reports indicate that data centers are at a “tipping point.” Some well-publicized issues supplying adequate electrical power to data centers include Canary Wharf in London and the area south of 14th Street in New York City. In 2006, the financial institutions at Canary Wharf were told that the power infrastructure could not supply power for additional servers at their data centers. In recent years, financial organizations have been adding significant server power, often with racks of blade servers. The racks of blade servers can greatly increase the power required per square foot in the data center. Each blade server requires about the same energy as larger, older servers, and the data center needs similar levels of electricity to cope with the heat generated. Canary Wharf didn’t have the power infrastructure to support the increased demands. A similar limit of the power structure occurred during 2008 for data centers south of 14th Street in Manhattan. Power restrictions to data centers based on inadequate power infrastructure is only a part of the problem. Data center floor space has also become a significant concern for data centers, especially in large cities. Often, a company runs out of data center floor space with no easy capability to expand.

The green IT techniques described in later chapters (such as server and data storage virtualization, and server consolidation), in addition to cutting power requirements by 50 percent, also reduce data center floor space requirements. Using virtual server techniques to replace ten stand-alone physical servers with one large physical box that includes ten virtual servers can easily reduce the data center floor space required by 80 percent. Practicing green IT promotes a “win-win” situation for all aspects of your data center: electric-power reduction, server cost, data center floor space, and management of the physical boxes.

Although building and certifying a green data center or other facility can often be expensive upfront, substantial long-term cost savings can be realized on operations and maintenance. The green data center technologies described later can all be based on the typical business case, where a significant return on investment (ROI) would be required before proceeding with a project. Of course, there are also significant nonfinancial returns to consider—because green facilities (including green data centers) offer employees a healthy, comfortable work environment. In addition, we cannot ignore the fact that green facilities enhance relations with local communities.

We are all aware of the growing pressure from environmentalists and, increasingly, the general public for governments to offer green incentives: monetary support for the creation and maintenance of ecologically responsible technologies. Server refresh offers data centers a convenient opportunity to go green, which always makes economic (as well as environmental) sense. IBM estimates that a typical 25,000 SF data center with electrical costs at 12 cents per KWH will cost a company $2.5 million a year in electrical energy costs for IT power and cooling. IBM also estimates that the typical data center can reduce its annual electricity cost by up to 50 percent by going green. Of course, as energy costs continue to climb, so will the savings due to the installation of energy-efficient IT equipment and optimization of data center cooling techniques.

Recent EPA reports stress that the U.S. data center industry is in the midst of a major growth period stimulated by increasing demand for data processing and storage. This demand is driven by several factors, including the following:

  • Increase in electronic transactions in financial services, such as online banking and electronic trading
  • Growth of Internet communication and entertainment use
  • Increase in online shopping and related transactions
  • Shift to electronic medical records for healthcare
  • Growth in global commerce and services
  • Adoption of satellite navigation and electronic shipment tracking in transportation

Other important trends contributing to data center growth in the government sector include the following:

  • Use of the Internet to publish government information
  • Government regulations requiring digital records retention
  • Enhanced disaster recovery requirements
  • Emergency, health, and safety services
  • Information security and national security
  • Digital provision of government services (for example, e-filing of taxes and U.S .Postal Service online tracking)
  • High-performance scientific computing

During the past five years, increasing demand for computer resources has led to significant growth in the number of data center servers, along with an estimated doubling in the energy used by these servers and the power and cooling infrastructure that supports them. This increase in energy use has a number of important implications:

  • Increased energy costs for business and government
  • Increased emissions, including greenhouse gases, from electricity generation
  • Increased strain on the existing power grid to meet the increased electricity demand
  • Increased capital costs for expansion of data center capacity and construction of new data centers

For these reasons, there has been mounting interest in opportunities for energy efficiency in this sector. To its credit, the Information Technology (IT) industry is actively investigating and developing solutions, such as power-managed servers and adaptive cooling.

The direct energy use of IT and infrastructure equipment is not, however, the only way that data centers affect energy use. The data-processing and communication services provided by data centers can also lead to indirect reductions in energy use in the broader economy, which can exceed the incremental data center energy expenditures in some cases. For instance, e-commerce and telecommuting reduce both freight and passenger transportation energy use. When we use an electronic bookstore such as Amazon.com, that use of e-commerce can save us from driving to the local bookstore, and, hence, save energy. We can attend a “virtual” conference using a web-conferencing service such as Webex or Microsoft® Live Meeting and thus save the energy expenditure of an airline flight to the conference, use of a rental car, and all the other energy use that travel entails.

The pursuit of energy efficiency opportunities in data centers is especially important because of the estimated continued rapid growth of direct energy use in data centers and the resulting impact on both the power grid and U.S. industries.

To repeat the theme: We’re all aware of rising energy costs in today’s data centers and the growing concerns over global warming and other environmental issues. These problems have made green IT one of the hottest topics in the IT area. But what exactly is green IT and green computing and how does it affect IT infrastructures? This book provides an outline on the concepts, benefits, and business value of green computing, such as the following:

  • A definition/analysis of green computing and its benefits
  • An overview of green computing solutions
  • The business case for going green
  • Implementation of an energy management solution
  • Why energy efficiency is so important

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020