Wireless Networks Cut Carbon (And Costs)

In spring 2009, one well known consultancy company recently moved into new headquarters in Europe, and moved its 2,800 employees to an 802.11n wireless LAN, cutting the number of wired-cabled ports from 12,000 to 6,000, and saving £1.3million in networking costs at the outset, and perhaps more importantly saving £500,000 in on-going annual operational costs.

Such capital and operational cost savings will benefit the bottom line of a company, but also go a long way to reducing carbon footprint. In the example above, the annual carbon footprint of the new office was reduced by nearly 1000 tonnes of CO2; simply by moving to an office environment that offered a pervasive 802.11n wireless alongside a right-sized wired network.

In addition to carbon and cost savings, a less wired (or more wireless) office is also significantly more sustainable; cable insulation, cable management/trunking systems, and wiring device accessories like plugs and boots, are made of PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene, synthetic rubber, MIC, nylon, and phenol formaldehyde. Each of the constituent chemicals has an impact on the environment when the part is made, when it is used, if it is exposed to fire, and when it is discarded.

For example PVC is a commonly used insulation material, but contains lead and other toxic chemicals. Not only does PVC require special handling at the disposal site, something it rarely receives, but it produces highly toxic chemicals when burned. Polyethylene, polypropylene, synthetic rubber, and nylon are less toxic, but only slightly.

3. Extend the wireless office to remote offices
This encourages remote ‘teleworking’ – because it’s not always difficult (or expensive) to build remote networks

The traditional approach to building remote offices, by effectively replicating the functionality of a ‘mini-HQ’ at each branch office, may have been effective when servers and applications were distributed, but it may not be the best approach in 2009. Today’s datacentre focussed application architecture does not necessarily benefit from a routed WAN connecting distributed remote offices. Remote Access Points (rather than routers) can extend the corporate office to remote sites using layer 2, while centralising management and security at the datacentre.

Many organisations already operate WANs using Remote Access Points. French company Galderma is one; “Our offices and production sites are geographically dispersed, and prior to deploying remote access points, concerns about the integrity of this far-flung network led us to enforce a ‘no wireless’ policy everywhere,” said Marc Tournier, Security and Compliance Manager. “Faced with strong demand for wireless access and greater mobility, we sought a mobility solution that would protect the integrity of our data. We also wanted a solution that could be managed with minimal IT overhead yet was flexible enough to meet the different needs of our field offices and logistics facilities.”

Delivering a single network that connects all sites at layer 2, yet maintains security through centralised encryption and authentication, allows organisations to save considerable expense, simplifies remote deployments, and makes their employees more mobile – and reduces ‘travelling carbon’.

Ultimately, network right-sizing is a process that allows organisations to re-evaluate traditional approaches to networking and determine if yesterday’s way of providing connectivity to users really meets the needs of employees and the business today.

Roger Hockaday, is Director of Marketing, Aruba Networks EMEA