Green IT Practices Presented by David Deal, CEO Community IT

Takeaways 1.To increase awareness of the environmental impact of desktops, servers, and other ICT equipment 2.To provide guidance and opportunities to adopt technology practices that will help reduce that impact and reduce costs 3.To discuss select solutions that will help nonprofits and social mission organizations reduce the environmental impact of their ICT AND use ICT to reduce their operational impact on the environment.

Poll Organization Size? Who knows what these are: Desktop Power Management? EPEAT? vSphere? Deliberate green efforts underway?

Agenda Hardware Software Green Practices And…

INTERACTION!

Environmental Impact 2% of global CO 2 emitted by ICT (Gartner) 50-70% of the lifetime energy consumption of a computer is used before it is ever turned on eWaste makes up 2% of solid waste in the U.S. and is the fastest growing segment

Environmental Impact A PC and monitor take 530 lbs of fossil fuels, 58 lbs of chemicals, and 1.5 tons of water to produce (UN Resource Saver) 50% of our 50-person company’s emissions are from business travel (commuting, clients, flights, etc.)

HARDWARE

“Green” HW Considerations 1.What you buy 2.How long you use it 3.How you dispose of it

Device Power Consumption Desktop: W++ Laptop: 20-40W Thin client: 8-12W (For use with Terminal Server or Virtual Desktops) Desktop/laptop in sleep mode: 2-10W LCD 35-40W vs CRT W

Ordering Green KEY POINT: When you buy desktops or printers, check

Typical Replacement Cycle Laptops: 2-4 years Desktops: 3-5 years Thin clients: 4-6 years Monitors: longer! KEY POINT: Thin clients often have the longest useful life, although using hosted apps or repurposing can help extend the useful life of laptops and desktops.

Retiring Old Computers Responsibly  Seek to reuse instead of recycle  Find a refurbisher  Partner with a small local nonprofit to get it into the community  Recycling as a last option

Power Management Smart power strips (for desktops) Power strips with timers (for printers)

SOFTWARE

The First Place Techies Look... The Server Room!

Server Virtualization Energy reduction up to 82% (Gartner) Small & medium-sized NPO’s (<100 PCs) often virtualize 4-8 servers on 1 physical server Software: VMware, MS Hyper-V, Citrix, etc.

…but workstations may be a greater opportunity! 3x the energy consumption of the server room Cut PC energy use up to 70%, save about $50 per desktop (NRDC) Free options for standalone PCs: Built-in settings in Windows, Macs Verdiem Edison (downloadable) Options for networked PCs: Faronics PowerSave Verdiem Surveyor

Virtualization

(Server-based) Desktop Virtualization Desktop virtualization makes energy savings possible by allowing the use of terminals instead of desktops or laptops Also, roaming access = travel reduction!

Hosted Software a.k.a. Cloud Computing, SaaS Salesforce, DIA, Google Apps, Constant Contact, MS BPOS (e.g. Hosted MS Exchange) Theoretically greener due to: Better use of server resources Remote access reducing travel But to realize this you need to: Turn off old server(s) Use it to reduce travel Also, is their power source cleaner than yours?

(TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED) GREEN PRACTICES

Green Practices Utilizing IT to green operations Examples: Reduce paper consumption Smart buildings Online faxing Travel reduction Working with distributed teams

Efficient Printing Duplexing - make it the default! (double-sided printing) Consolidate printers (reducing printer-to-staff ratio)

Travel Reduction Reduce commuter and business travel Travel contributes to 50% of CITI’s total emissions (even with 75% of travel done via public transit, biking, and walking!) Ingredients: Remote & mobile access to ICT resources - data, voice, video Numerous studies confirming moderate to significant positive environmental impact

Working with Distributed Teams Web conferencing: GoToMeeting, WebEx, Ready Talk File sharing Box.net, Dropbox, BPOS/SharePoint, Jungle Disk, Drop.io, Google Docs Comprehensive hosted apps: Hyperoffice, Zoho, Google Apps, (MS BPOS+Office Web Apps coming) Extranets/project collaboration: Basecamp, SharePoint

Travel Reduction: Voice Voice over IP & IP Telephony Virtual/hosted PBX Lower startup costs, often lower calling costs Cost-effective for smaller organizations BUT: unless the vendor also provides the data connection (T1), they still don’t control call quality May not be for you if you have a large number of users, high call volume, or if you need certain features (ACD)

Travel Reduction: Video Peer-to-peer, small groups Skype (+VuRoom for group video?) Quality? Hosted WebEx (up to 6), etc. On-premises Polycom, LifeSize, Cisco, etc. Requires appropriate Internet bandwidth

Questions What is one easy IT-related step you want to take to green your organization? What is a “stretch” green IT solution you would implement if your organization had the resources? Any other ideas to share? What was your most significant takeaway from today?

Conclusion There’s a lot you can do to green your IT that does not require either behavioral change by staff or tremendous resources. Two high-impact starting points may be desktop power management (easy) and travel reduction (maybe more challenging).