Green Computing Research Project

GREEN COMPUTING RESEARCH PROJECT

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Introduction

The word “Go Green” has been buzzing around the world, we all know it is relating to environment. So we wonder what is green computing. How Information technology firm will benefit from converting to green technology. I am discussing the benefits from Green IT which are Innumerable. One of the simplest definitions of green technology is; The study and practice of designing, Manufacturing, Using, and Disposing of computers, servers and associated subsystems – Such as monitors, printers, storage devices and network and communication systems – efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment. Green IT also strives to achieve economic viability and improve system performance and use, while abiding by our social and ethical responsibilities (greenwikia). With this project we aim to bring Green computing into our organization and show the social commitment we have towards the society.

Content:

Some areas of green computing, which we will be analyzing with successful projects implemented in other organization are:

• Data Centre and overall energy efficiency - A data center is a home to computational power, storage, and applications necessary to support an enterprise business. A data center is central to modern IT infrastructure, as all content is sourced from or passes through it. Electricity usage is the most expensive portion of a data center’s operational costs (Wang & Samee, 2013). One of a successful example in reduction in data center costing was done by -The Department of Australian Defence (Defence) implemented a Green ICT initiative in June 2008. By enforcing automatic log-off and then automatic shut-down on its major PC fleet, the number of machines left powered on after hours fell from 50,000 to 3,000. Electricity savings from this initiative are expected to exceed $5 million annually. The equivalent cut in greenhouse gas emissions is expected to exceed 30,000 tonnes annually – the equivalent of taking 7,500 cars off the road permanently (Peter, 2008). This will be a easy mythology we can implement in our organization.
• Disposal of electronic waste and recycling - E-waste is one of the biggest concerns in the society. We face the same issue in many countries of operation we have.  Waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE), or e-waste, ‘is now recognized as the fastest growing waste stream in the industrialized world’. The total annual volume of e-waste is soon expected to reach 40 million metric tonnes – enough to fill dump trucks stretching continuously halfway around the globe  (Amos, Macdonald, & Deathe, 2008). Plastic blends in this equipment are non-degradable and difficult to recycle. They can also contain cadmium, mercury, lead and brominates flame-retardants, which are not environment friendly. At the corporate level, TCS has enforced a Reduce, Reuse and Recycle policy for the lifecycle of all products from procurement to eventual disposal. Opting for environmental friendly version of the product, exploring lease/buyback options and working with authorised agencies/vendors to ensure close to 100% recycling/reuse after the lifetime, even for the equipment donated to charities/NGOs are some of the e-waste handling initiatives within TCS (Sivasubramaniam). We can use to same process in some department and further expand.

• Telecommuting – Lot of company is implementing telecommuting in their organization as it help in reducing the operation cost and well as the investment required for the real estate for running an office. Some company which has successfully implemented the same is Apple, AT&T and Yahoo, just to name a few. According to Telework Coalition, more than 45 million people telecommute at least once a week. In 2005, 44 percent of U.S companies offered at least some telecommuting options, according to a Survey by Mercer Human Resource consulting (samson, 2007).

• Virtualization of server resources – This will help in reducing the space required to store servers. The same server is converted to different sub- server using the software. IBM recently announced that it should be possible to achieve about 40–80% energy savings in data centers by power management. According to De Monte:

If you were to implement all the data center efficiencies that could be reasonably achieved by 2015, it would save the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 1.8 million homes (Gautam, 2013).

There are many other companies which were able to improve efficiency by integrating the server.

• Thin Client Solution – Thin Client is one of the most cost effective ways of working in big organizations. The most popular example of Cloud is Google, All the products of Google including the Gmail work on thin client solution. It helps in complete utilization of the server and other resources.
• Use of open source software – moving from dedicated client server and software will help in reducing the energy use. As per the US Energy secretary open source software will help in cutting the global warming. TCS has also implemented the open source software for its staffs. This has been very successful in reducing the costing and server dependencies.
• Development of new software to address green computing for internal use and   potential sale to other organizations: Lot of other software company has developed software of their own and sold it to other clients over the span of time. One of the common examples we can see is, The “Mobility Initiative,” the IBM program was implemented at IBM in the early 90’s. In 1994, IBM reduced its total office space by 22 million square feet, the equivalent of the space in eight Empire state building. In the north east alone, IBM saved $70 million in real estate expenses that year (Alverson, 1998). The same software is being deployed by IBM to other company now and generating revenue out of it.

Conclusion: As discussed above green computing is a very efficient and good initiative which the company should implement. 

Reference

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Alverson, M. (1998, Nov/Dec). WELCOME TO THE `VIRTUAL WORKPLACE' . Women In Business , pp. Vol. 50 Issue 6, p20.

Amos, W., Macdonald, E., & Deathe, A. (2008). E-waste Management Programmes and the Promotion of Design for the Environment: Assessing Canada's Contributions. Review of European Community & International Environmental Law , P321-326.

Botelho, B. (2007, April 11). Dell pushes green computing initiative, offers low power AMD servers. Tech Target .

Gautam, N. (2013, oct). Integrating virtualization, speed scaling, and powering on/off servers in data centers for energy efficiency. IIE Transactions. , p. 1114.