Service Matters! ITSM & IT Management

The usage phase of an IT assets' lifecycle is where most of the industry's "Greening" efforts are concentrated. Organizations are utilizing technologies like virtualization, centralized power management etc. to increase utilization of existing assets, reduce carbon emissions and cut down on operational expenses.

However, challenge lies in enabling employee involvement in the Green journey and not in implementing technology solutions. Also, as mentioned in my previous post, employee awareness & involvement can provide much higher benefit as compared to technology implementation.

I would like to divide this post into manual initiatives and automated solutions.

Manual Initiatives:

·        Business users must inform the IT organization when the assets are no longer required. Also, IT organizations should conduct periodic audits to track and report on IT asset usage by the business.

·        Laptop users must read and follow the battery care practices mentioned in laptop's user manuals

·        Learn and adjust the power settings in operating system according to one's way of working.

Following manufacturer's instructions and using OS power settings help in delaying the degradation of a battery. This offers multiple benefits in terms of frequency of charging the battery, reduced expenses due to longer battery life and of course reduced impact on environment resulting from avoidance of buying new batteries.

·        Do away with screen savers (there is a better saver for your screen: a monitor's 'off' buttonJ).

·         Turn off computers when not required.

·        Avoid printing unless it's unavoidable and try using recycled paper wherever possible.

·       The documents we make tend to go through a number of versions, if possible, delete the intermediate versions once the document is finalized. This would save storage space on PCs as well as servers and reduce the need for increasing storage space.

Automated Solutions:

·        Centralizing the power management for PCs and servers can go a long way in managing energy usage. Organizations can standardize the OS based PC power settings by implementing the same in a centralized manner. These small settings provide considerable financial benefits when taken in the context of entire organization, the bigger the organization the bigger the benefit.

Also, many software vendors are coming up with centralized power management software that tracks power consumption of relevant devices and powers them down if idle. Such software also handles patch management of powered down devices using features like wake-on-LAN. Hence, employees don't have to leave their PCs on after a day's work thinking about patches.

·        Printer management is another area that is important for "going green". It is possible to centrally implement power settings for printers. You can implement "sleep" mode for printers and optimize printers for double sided printing, secure printing etc to make sure that printers consume less power and there are no unnecessary printouts.

·        Last but not the least; organizations can employ virtualization technology to increase utilization of their existing assets. This technology is on the top of most IT manager's agenda these days due to the multi-faceted benefits offered by it. To list a few:

o   Decrease in electricity bill

o   Increased free space in data centers

o   Reduction in carbon emissions

I would like to conclude this post with a simple thought; optimizing the utilization of your existing assets by appropriate use of technology and process is more sensible economically as well as environmentally than buying new energy efficient assets. By doing that you would be saving on the cost of purchasing and handling of replacing existing assets with new ones as well as avoiding the carbon emitted in the production of new assets.

I hope this post would have provided some good pointers to employees and organizations to enhance utilization of existing assets. I will be back with my post on eco-friendly end-of-life management next Monday. Have a great and "green" week ahead! J

Posted by Mitesh Desai at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Below are some points that can help in "Green" procurement:

Procure in "Green" manner:

·         Utilizing e-Procurement or e-Supply Chain Management solutions:

E-Procurement solution can be implemented for both internal and external procurement. These kinds of solutions provide users the ability to select required products and services from an online catalog and order them through the system. These systems have workflows within them which automate and speed up the process of approval. This also reduces the usage of paper in the procurement process. In addition, the business benefits that these systems offer are:

ü  Reduction in transaction cost

ü  Increased contract compliance

ü  Improved supplier leverage

A classic example of utilizing information technology for optimizing supply chain is the supply chain model adopted by Wal-Mart long back in late 1990s.

·         Vendor terms & conditions:

Since the procurement process involves both buyer and seller, it is important for both parties to follow eco-friendly practices in order to procure assets in a "Green" manner. The buyer can emphasize the usage of recycled packaging and packing take back arrangements by explicitly mentioning it in the Request for Proposal (RFP) terms & conditions.

Quoting the example of Wal-mart again, the global organization had also taken up an inspirational initiative of giving eco-ratings to the products some time back; thereby, increasing the importance of sustainable practices for its suppliers.

Many hardware vendors have started asset take back programs where the vendor will take back the asset at the end of its useful life. For example, Dell, HP, IBM and Apple are all examples of organizations that offer asset take back programs. Good information about electronic takeback vendors, "Green" design and "Green" procurement tools can be found at the website of electronics takeback coalition.  Organizations can take advantage of such programs to manage assets in the disposal stage of their lifecycle and reduce the cost of recycling or reusing.

Procure "Green" Assets:

While replacing a hardware or component, make sure it is replaced only by an energy efficient component. This will help in increasing the % of energy efficient hardware components in the organization.

The easiest way to procure energy efficient products is to look for certifications like Energy Star or EPEAT. Many hardware manufacturers publish reports about their products' ecological footprint.

Also, investment in thin client technology can be considered for specific business functions and can be done during a normal PCs refresh cycle. Thin clients provide multiple benefits to IT organizations in terms of:

ü  Reduction in energy consumption after replacing the PCs

ü  Utilizing the unused load on servers

ü  Making support and management easier

ü  Lowering costs relating to equipment repairs and support

ü  Enhanced security

However, thin clients are not favorable for all sets of users and conditions and one needs to be mindful of usage requirements and patterns. A few points to be kept in mind while opting for thin clients are: target set of users, processing requirements and available network bandwidth.

Hope you are ready with some "Green" procurement by next Monday when I will be posting thoughts on "Greening" the use phase of IT assets' lifecycle.

Posted by Mitesh Desai at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

As promised, I am back to continue with my posts on Green IT Asset Management. In this post, I will be talking about planning for GAM (Green IT Asset Management).

Planning for IT Asset Management helps manage Information Technology assets over their lifecycle by providing specific services to business users in a cost effective manner. Given the increasing importance of ICT (Information & Communication Technology) in reducing the organization's carbon footprint, taking focused steps in all stages of the asset lifecycle has a significant impact. Therefore, it is important to have a comprehensive asset management plan looking at all aspects of IT asset management and finding opportunities to "Go Green".

Below are some points that can help "Greening" the asset management if considered during the planning stages:

·         Audit existing assets:

Before planning for IT asset management, it is important to baseline the existing IT asset scenario. The first step would be to audit existing assets and identify dependencies between them. Identifying dependencies helps in identifying assets that are no longer required by the business and can be used for new projects.

·         Baseline "Green" parameters:

After performing an audit of existing assets, analyze current asset carbon emissions and energy consumption. This will help in setting reduction targets and prioritizing Green IT initiatives.

·         Identify ways to utilize existing assets:

Performing audits and identifying dependencies can help highlight ways to reuse existing assets as mentioned above. In addition, there are technologies like virtualization, consolidation etc. which can further help increase the utilization of existing assets. Server consolidation through virtualization can provide ratio of about 5 - to - 1 (virtual to physical servers) which looks good from perspective of reduction in energy consumption and utilization of unused capacity. However, this also calls for additional planning in terms of approach towards the assets that are no longer used after virtualization and cooling (more processing by server leading to higher heat dissipation in data center).

·         Procurement:

Procuring eco-friendly assets is one of the simplest ways to start an organization's Green IT journey. Prepare guidance for "Green" procurement which includes negotiation terms with hardware and software vendors and other IT service providers. Include the "Green" procurement guidance in organization's IT procurement policy. Many organizations, including government and non-government organizations, are already having a Green Procurement Policy in place. For example, Toyota, Nikon, US - Department of Defense etc. have prepared detailed Green Procurement Policies.

·         Disposal:

Identify ways to minimize the effect of end-of-life effects IT assets on the environment. Prepare a policy to guide actions in the disposal phase of an IT asset's lifecycle. . Identify partners for appropriate handling of e-waste. Guidance regarding recycling & recycling vendors can be obtained from Electronics Take Back Coalition.

·         Training & awareness:

It is amazing to know that one of the most cost effective measures provides significant savings in terms of energy and carbon emission. As per an Intel study, user training and awareness can give double the energy savings as compared to implementing centralized power saving software. Train employees and motivate employees regarding the efficient usage of IT assets.

Posted by Mitesh Desai at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When I chose to blog on this topic, I remembered my recent visit to a restaurant and thought of starting with the analogy.

As I went inside and occupied a table, I took the menu card lying on the table and started selecting the items which would satisfy both my taste buds and my stomach. I was coming up with a list of items when my friend pointed towards the full meal which had almost all the items present in my list in addition to some exclusive soup. The full meal looked very organized with soup, main course, and a dessert.

• Laptops are shipped from manufacturer’s warehouse to organization’s warehouse
• Different components of the laptop are assembled. To name a few, these components include motherboard, RAM, hard disk, screen, keyboard, CD / DVD drive.
• Each of these components would be shipped from manufacturing location to assembly location.
• Each of these components would go through their manufacturing process.
• Each of these components require metals, fossil fuels, water and other chemicals.
• Metals and fossil fuels are extracted from their respective locations and shipped.

The mining activity carried out in order to extract various metals required for production consumes about 7% to 10% of world energy consumption. To add, manufacturing of a 2 gram memory chip requires about 1.7 Kg of fossil fuels & chemicals and about 36 Kg of water. Now, think of the number of chips present in a laptop or desktop PC.
So, shall we stop using laptops and desktop PCs? No, the idea is not going back to the Stone Age, but to consciously adopt technology that has a lesser impact on the environment and then use it for things like telecommuting, reducing paper usage etc. to make up for the environmental damage caused during production. However, there might be an argument saying business is not entirely about the environment, what about bottom line? As I mentioned above, reducing travel, paper usage etc reduces the operational expenses of the organization.

Talking about Green IT Asset Management, involving environmental considerations in each of the lifecycle phase right from planning to buy eco-friendly IT products to appropriate end-of-life treatment can lead to a significant reduction in CO₂ emission as well as lower the Total Cost of Ownership (or TCO) for the assets. For example*, buying 1 Energy-Star certified computer as compared to a conventional computer (Considering no initial cost difference, 4 years of life and $0.103/KWH for electricity rate) can lead to cost saving of approx. $51, energy saving of 550 KWH and 847 lbs of CO₂ emission reduction. These numbers are without considering any additional efforts for power management etc. Scaling up these numbers in the context of large organizations can lead to considerable cost and environmental savings, achieved just by procuring eco-friendly products. Needless to say, these advantages are in addition to those obtained by employing techniques like power management, recycling etc.

This requires taking the entire lifecycle of IT assets into account as the first step in the journey towards “Greener” IT. Below is the typical lifecycle of an IT asset:

 

 

I will talk about “Green” considerations in each of the lifecycle phases in detail in subsequent blogs which I will be posting every Monday. Wishing you a “Green” week till then!  

* Numbers based on calculations carried out by Energy-Star.

Posted by Mitesh Desai at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)