How Green IT Measures Up

The single most effective energy-saving strategy for user devices is to turn them off when they are not in use.

According to the EMA study referenced earlier, desktop systems are left on when not in use over evenings and weekends 43 percent of the time. The wasted energy of this practice costs about $150 per system per year.

Conversely, laptops are much less likely to be left on unnecessarily, and when they are on they typically consume less energy than a desktop. The study showed that 36 percent of enterprise workers have more than one system at their desk, the vast majority being desktop/laptop combinations. It would seem that another easy fix for IT managers would be to simply eliminate desktop systems for workers who have laptops by using docking stations and a second monitor.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The familiar recycling triangle can help guide IT managers to greater cost savings and a greener profile. Not all corners of the triangle are equally important. By far, the most effective practice for greener IT is to reduce. Server virtualization shines here as the most important way to right-size capacity to business needs.

To preserve virtualization’s hardware and power-conserving properties, though, IT managers must take the next step and manage VMs. Ruthlessly pursue unused VMs in your environment and mandate stringent VM life-cycle management requirements. There are few motivators more effective than a monthly chargeback bill. An effective green IT strategy, therefore, must include a means to accurately measure resource usage and to ensure that users pay for all the computing power they consume.

Many power companies across the country provide rebates for companies that implement power-saving technologies, including power throttling on servers and scheduled shutdown for end-user systems.

In addition, there are patching and configuration management tools that implement wake-on-LAN and remote shutdown to enable machine patching off hours while still turning machines off when they are up-to-date. Working together, these management tools can help IT managers save their business cash while reducing the load of computing on the environment.

Labs Technical Director Cameron Sturdevant can be reached at cameron.sturdevant@ziffdavisenterprise.com.