Global Warming and IT Jobs, Part II

I’m not alone (read Global Warming and IT Jobs: A Lose-Win Proposition) in seeing the battle against global warming benefiting the IT profession.

Jack Santos, CIO executive strategist with the advisory firm Burton Group, in a post on the business-tech pub Baseline’s website, writes:

We are embarking on the greatest period of innovation the world has known. What does this mean for IT? Consolidated and more-efficient data centers (virtualized storage, processors, desktops and cloud computing), smart-grid energy-use alternatives and a push toward Internet-based work-anywhere options (which affect employment).

As economic incentives and energy policies kick in, business will quickly begin to take advantage of credits or incentives to think differently about its energy use. This will continue to put pressure on wireless and mobility options, new technologies in unified communications and innovations such as tele-presence video systems. IT is center stage in these innovations.

No doubt IT will play a significant role in helping companies reduce their carbon footprints, as I opined in this video and a CIO Insight Editor's Note.

Just Turn 'Em Off

Nearly three of 10 servers in a typical data center aren't in active production, but they still consume electricity.
That figure comes from Uptime Institute founder and executive director Kenneth Brill.

"They need to be turned off, removed from the racks and disposed of. Unfortunately, efficiency is not cool. Unless senior executives demand the ability to uninstall hardware, the tendency will be to leave the old stuff installed."

When I spoke with Brill earlier this year, he encouraged that other devices be turned off when not used, such as desktop PCs when workers go home at night.

"There are 160 work hours in a month, but in actual hours, there are almost three times that, 24 hours times 30. By turning equipment off when it's not needed, you can reduce power consumption by that enormous ratio.

"We need to become more energy-conscious, and we can do it either for a green reason or for profitability. A single server costing around $2,500 consumes almost $750 in electricity per year. ... That's a lot of money to have something running when it's not doing anything."