Continue reading »]]> Brad Pitt is doing it with houses and architectural design. Rachel McAdams is doing it by bike. Australian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins did it while touring the US. Now, Microsoft is doing it with it’s latest Windows release. More companies are also getting their IT departments to jump on the bandwagon, and there’s proof!

A recent study conducted by CompTIA found that green IT is a mid to high level priority for 67 percent of organizations surveyed. In spite of the study also finding that a majority (80%) of organizations find quantifying the return on investment (ROI) of green initiatives to be a difficult task, Tim Herbert, vice president of research at CompTIA, says, “survey data suggests many organizations are willing to invest greener IT products even when the return isn’t realized immediately.” According to the study, over 75 percent of organizations expect to have a comprehensive green IT strategy within the next five years. Here are a couple of ideas to get that ball rolling…

Start with a more energy efficient server manager:
1e’s award nominated NightWatchman now comes in Server Edition, a product that puts “drowsy” computing to work. By analyzing active computing (the typical work done by computer users) and background computing (highly inefficient activity that server software performs such as antivirus updates or indexing checks), NightWatchman gauges servers to run at the lowest energy setting possible.  CEO of 1e, Sumir Karayi, mentions that “one of the largest causes of energy and IT operational waste in data centers are servers that are simply not being used.” “It’s still working,” he says, “it’s just working slower, like it’s drowsy.” Dell, for instance, saves over $1.8 billion annually by using NightWatchman across a board of 50,000 computers. Perhaps a solution where the ROI on this product could equal less than one year?

Then, update to a greener Windows:
From the greenest neck of the Windows woods comes Microsoft’s newest release, Windows 7. Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s chief environmental strategist, highlights a server and client interaction that “allows IT [departments] to run a power-efficiency diagnostics chart.” The chart is then used to adjust computers for the most efficient operation. By removing certain drivers that would prevent the processor from running optimally, Windows 7 “has become much more aware of the power management capabilities within the processor and chip set.”

Well, there’s a start. Just a few thoughts to flow the green thinking again.

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