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Going green is the hottest new trend and as it gains momentum you may be thinking how can we implement this within IT? Well, there are many ways of going green within your company and here we explore some of those ways. Eco-friendly tactics are now able to be used to make operations more efficient resulting in a better green footprint for your business and a cost saving advantage too. Those using IT on a day-to-day basis can use cloud computing, server virtualisation or state-of-the-art data centres.
The term green IT means using sustainable practices in computing. The motives behind green IT practices include reducing the use and disposal of hazardous materials, maximising energy efficiency during the product’s lifetime, and promoting the biodegradability of unused and outdated products. Other components of green IT include the redesign of data centres and the growing popularity of virtualisation, green networking and cloud computing. It also includes taking responsibility for what you use and how you dispose of it.
Cloud computing is the delivery of different services through the internet. These resources include tools and applications like data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software. Rather than keeping files on a hard drive or local storage device; cloud-based storage makes it possible to save them to a remote database.
More and more people and companies are moving into cloud computing. It is the most efficient way to share files. Not only is it quicker and easier to access, but it also prevents files being shared via email or other methods which can sometimes lack security
There are many cloud-based products such as Office 365, Google Drive or Dropbox. It helps partners to work productively, any place, anywhere, whilst businesses can save costs on energy-chugging equipment.
The advantages of using cloud infrastructures are security and reliability, meaning no losing of work when a PC goes down, cost reductions, environmental proactivity such as cutting down on paper waste and improving energy efficiency. It also allows employees to access anywhere providing there is an internet connection.
In a lot of companies, you will find multiple servers that are operating to serve only a few tasks. For example, one may be responsible for Windows and the Web, and another for Databases.
Server virtualisation is the new way of working, resources such as computing power, storage, network, and security are distributed among the available services. Server virtualisation is the process of restructuring a single server into multiple small, isolated virtual servers. By using Server Virtualisation this reduces processing power, maintenance costs and hardware costs. Virtualising servers is the green option, as this significantly reduces the number of servers needed and as a result decreases energy costs and power output.
Many firms are requiring increasingly high-performance server rooms because of trends such as digitisation and big data. This results in escalating energy usage, which has a negative influence on the environment and adds to the company’s costs. Innovative cooling and ventilation techniques assist to significantly decrease energy expenses. Modern data centres can thus run without issue in rooms with temperatures as high as 35 °C.
Modern software is another component that offers significant cost savings and makes a big contribution to green IT. Internet telephony is a perfect example, as obvious and rational as it may appear.
Further to the above you can see that there are plenty of ways to incorporate environmentally friendly practices within IT. These new ways of working can have a great impact on protecting the environment and will help to reduces costs.
Date: July 5, 2021
Author: Morris