Green IT and more (Part II) – Cleaning Up IT

Depending on your setup and business needs, a thin client approach might be worth considering. This is where you have a low-power device on your desktop instead of the PC processor box, and all the meaty work takes place in the data centre. All that’s sent between your device and the data centre are the keyboard, video and mouse signals. These devices take out a lot of the hassle of desktop computing because they’re inherently more secure and software updates happen at the centre. And another piece of good news is that they don’t have to be upgraded every two, three or four years. It’s not unusual for them to be in use after eight years (and that’s longer than the shelf-life of a Pop Idol winner).

Think about replacing your monitor screens, especially if they’re cathode ray tubes, which consume power continuously and were designed with no thought to recycling. Instead, buy flat screen monitors that consume little or no energy when in standby mode. Some shift to standby mode automatically after a certain period of inactivity.

Out of the office

Most people use either a laptop or a PDA, or both, when they’re on the move. These bring new issues. For example, do you leave mobile phone, notebook and PDA chargers plugged in to a live power supply, even when nothing’s being charged? What do you do with your mobile phones at the end of their life? Most people put them away in a drawer ‘just in case’ rather than reusing or recycling them. Instead, look out for recycling schemes, ranging from bulk collections (ideal for out-of-date office mobiles) to freepost addresses for small quantities. Equipment is refurbished when possible or stripped for precious metals and components when not. (Remember to include the power supply when returning used equipment.) Consider using remote thin clients or even more powerful, but still thin, laptop or notebook devices on which you can continue working even when disconnected from the network, to save even more energy.

In the data centre

Data centres consume a lot of electricity and this demand, along with the size of the associated utility bill, attracts boardroom attention. The computers, storage devices and air-conditioning equipment are usually working fairly inefficiently so you can have a big impact here.

Many server computers run at less than 30 per cent capacity and, although more effective than the average desktop machine, this isn’t using them to their fullest potential. If you can double the amount of work each processor does, you can halve the number of devices in use and cut the overall environmental impact.

A common way to achieve this is with virtualisation software which enables applications to run wherever there’s room for them. Previously, a server might have run a single application. Now each one can run a mix of jobs and earn its keep more effectively. Reducing the amount of equipment releases space and liberates the redundant machines for reuse or recycling.