25 Apr Tips for Making Green IT Infrastructure

Environmental preservation is something that is of great concern for great companies and governments around the world nowadays. Humans have transformed the Earth’s atmosphere to such a degree that it can no longer be ignored. This is why everyone is trying to make ways to do everything that we can so that we do not hurt the atmosphere any more. This attitude towards the environment has, of course, found its way into the informational technologies and there are numerous ways now for businesses to reduce their pollution levels to an absolute minimum. Since this is becoming almost necessary in many environmentally conscious countries, I will hereby provide you with a few tips that will help you make your IT usage eco-friendly and green.

Look before you jump

Definitely, the first thing that you should do, and the first step towards minimizing your carbon footprint, is to do the measuring. You cannot know where to cut down on energy usage if you do not know how much energy each machine is consuming. Maybe you have already minimized your energy spending and you were not aware of it.

So, in order to do this, you have to make a list of all items that are energy-consuming (when speaking about the IT department, these are all the machines that fall under the IT branch of products). See how much printers, phones, scanners, computers, laptops and other electronic devices you have. Also, note down where each device is stationed. Then, go to your energy supplier and ask for an audit. With most energy suppliers, this is free of charge and you can ask for it as many times as you want. There is also another option, and that is to install a networking meter, which will measure the energy consumption as you consume it. This will be very useful once you start saving consumption, because it will allow you to see exactly how much energy you are saving in the process of making your IT department greener.

Some companies that deal with the whole environmental awareness thing offer deals where they will finish the whole job for you. They will measure your carbon footprint, give you all the details, and if you want, they can provide a plan for you to go greener and even provide the marketing materials required for this action.

Consolidating and outsourcing

The simplest solution to the energy consumption problem would be to have fewer devices turned on in the company. Of course, you can’t turn off some vital devices like a printer, a scanner or a fax machine, since they are all important for the company, being a way in which information is gathered and multiplied. However, what you CAN do is to replace these three with one device that can function as a scanner, printer and a fax machine, at once. These multi-functional devices can be found everywhere now, since they offer the benefits of the three at a lower price. Also, try to purchase an iPod or a Samsung Galaxy Note in order to replace your mobile phone, office phone and your laptop. These devices function perfectly and will help you reduce your energy consumption by a significant degree.

Another thing that you can do is to outsource all your IT requirements and have them done by companies which specialize in the area. This way, several companies can share the same servers, use cloud computing servers and such. You can even check whether some larger company has room in its IT centers, and ask them to share for a certain monthly fee that you will be paying to them. This fee will certainly be a lot lesser than the fee that you pay for sustaining your own IT center. You can even outsource a call center that will help you with your clientele.

Get off the grid

The only time when an IT device is not consuming power is when it is switched off, which is something that is quite logical. Many companies leave their computers and other devices running during the night, sometimes for no particular reason. This is harmful in many ways, for the device, for your energy bill and for the environment. Devices need some time to be switched off, because they need to consolidate their memory cores, and the longer the device works without being switched off, the larger are the risks that it will break down.

American energy supplier, Energy Star, shows information about energy saving during the night, when companies turn off their electronic devices on their website. This is what they have to say. As you can see, the numbers are too great to be ignored.

So, turn off your devices during the night. You will consume much less energy. Furthermore, you can try turning off the peripheral devices, such as printers, during the day, when they are not used. For the most of the time, these devices are just standing there, unused. Turn them off arbitrarily and when needed.

It is advisable to unplug the devices, as well. Some things, like battery chargers for cell phones and laptops, consume energy even when they are only plugged in. According to one of the leading cell phone producers, Nokia, enough energy would be saved for ten thousand European homes, if only people would unplug their cell phone chargers when they are not using them.

So, consider these pieces of advice. They are a beginning of a path which will lead you towards minimizing your energy consumption and your pollution of the environment. Since less consumption means lesser bills and less pollution means a better and a healthier future, this is certainly a win-win situation for any company. You just have to start.