Tim James, sustainableIT

Where does the local IT industry stand on energy consumption?

Despite worldwide efforts in carbon (CO2) emissions footprint reduction, it seems the IT industry is still very powerhungry, reportedly creating 2% of the world’s CO2 emissions. The growth of the IT industry in SA, particularly, may seem at cross-purposes to the environmental goals, but if done well, local tech companies can help with SA’s energy problems, and set a good clean energy example for the rest of the country.

Although SA is a bit behind the blackball when it comes to alternative sources of energy, explains Tim James, MD of sustainableIT, this will change in the next few years as large renewable plants come on line. “These will have a dramatic impact on CO2 footprint reduction, as the Eskom grid is one of the most CO2-intensive energy sources on the planet,” he says. “When CO2 taxation is introduced in the 2013/14 tax year, IT companies offering ‘clean’ services will have the leg up on the competition in this low CO2 environment.”

He continues, “Not only is SA an energy-intensive economy, but it is also the world’s 13th largest emitter of CO2, largely as a result of our ‘dirty’ energy. This places us in a position whereby we are going to need to rapidly transform our economy to remain competitive on global markets, as international CO2 tariffs get introduced. Technology will be at the forefront of this transformation, and local IT companies need to start investing R&D funding into low CO2 solutions to ensure our economic future.”

Dr Andrew Hutchison, T-Systems

According to Rip Wyma, director of Shared Energy Management, the drive towards improving energy efficiency is due largely to increasing cost pressures. “As energy costs continue to rise, organisations are increasingly looking towards saving energy costs, which means reducing consumption and becoming more energy efficient. This cost saving exercise is augmented by increasing social and environmental awareness, as well as by legal requirements. These currently include the need for all Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)-listed companies to include sustainability and CO2 emission reductions as part of corporate reporting. However, there are several other laws in the pipeline around energy consumption and CO2 emissions, and organisations are beginning to gear themselves towards meeting these criteria as well.”

Says Gavin Halse, director at Adapt IT: “IT companies need to consider the total impact of both their own energy usage and the energy impact of their solutions on their customers.”

Fundamentally, he explains, IT companies consume most energy in the form of electricity or fuel. “All initiatives to reduce electricity consumption, or supplement electrical energy with alternative renewable sources, should be explored,” he says.

“IT companies often consume more IT resources than their clients,” James points out. “Unsurprisingly, this is largely due to the fact that the IT industry is an IT-intensive industry. As such, the energy consumed directly as a result of the use of technology within these organisations represents a significant component of their CO2 footprint.” However, he continues, the same opportunities to reduce this consumption that are available to their clients, are available to IT companies, although due to the energy intensive nature of IT, there is a more onerous burden on IT companies to reduce energy and emissions.

REDUCING FOOTPRINTS

So, what exactly can be done, or should companies be doing, in order to start reducing their CO2 footprints? James advises IT companies to go back to the basics. “Set the CIO or CTO energy reduction targets. Power down infrastructure when not in use through intelligent power management tooling on both desktop and server infrastructure. In this respect, base operating system tooling is not sufficient and will hinder operations, best of breed PC and server power management software should be deployed. In the datacentre, focus on your PUE factor and continue to invest in virtualisation, blade technology and shared storage. Data centre infrastructure management tools should be clearly on the roadmap to increase efficiency gains.”

A good place to start is the data centre, agrees Dr Andrew Hutchison from international pre-sales management at T-Systems. “If one considers there are currently an estimated three million data centres in the world, with the figure to climb by nearly half this amount again by 2013, it is clear that an energy-conscious infrastructure will have an important role to play in contributing to a greener IT world.

“The move to a green data centre can start with a few small steps,” he says. “IT companies are making progress with making the transition a bit easier.”

He also mentions how the move to cloud computing offers the opportunity for organisations to centralise their infrastructure and services with a provider model that can then focus on the specialised area of energy optimisation in the delivery centres. “Virtualisation is, in general, also an opportunity to consolidate power supplies, cooling systems and the computing footprint in a way which can be more energy efficient.”

According to Andrew Smith, sales engineer at Kaseya International: “Solutions today allow IT companies and MSPs to centrally manage and deploy PC power settings and continuously check that these settings fall within the defined Power Management Policy. PCs that are out of compliance will be automatically remediated.”

Furthermore, Smith suggests organisations should be continuously enforcing PC power settings from a centralised location. “By enforcing more stringent desktop power settings, organisations can potentially realise energy saving from about R100 to as much as R250 per computer, per month. In an organisation of 500 desktops, this equates to substantial savings.”

According to Halse, taking a holistic systems approach that considers the full impact of an organisation’s operations and the use of its products through the full life cycle, is a good move. “Set an example by good stewardship of the energy resources you consume, and ensure that you show leadership to your customers by measuring your impact and showing concrete steps you are taking to reduce energy consumption and waste.”

Above all, IT companies need to practice what they preach, James urges. “They also have the ability to change behaviour within their clients by actively demonstrating how the adoption of sometimes relatively obvious technologies can make a significant dent in the bottom line. I know of one major bank, for instance, that implemented a PC power management solution, and is saving in excess of R400 000 onbehaviour within their clients by actively demonstrating how the adoption of sometimes relatively obvious technologies can make a significant dent in the bottom line. I know of one major bank, for instance, that implemented a PC power management solution, and is saving in excess of R400 000 on its energy bill every month. Small and simple steps go a long way in the collective goal to reduce energy.”

Unfortunately, ‘going green’ is not as easy as one would imagine, says Patrick Reeves, executive of client computing at AxizWorkgroup. “There are complications in retro-fitting buildings and it is still very niche. It is certainly more expensive to adopt alternative energy than maintaining the coal-based status quo.”

His advice to companies, first and foremost, is that they have a plan in mind. “Firstly, there needs to be top-level buy-in and strategy approval. In fact, the entire company needs to be on board. There are many actions companies can take and numerous initiatives they can get involved in, but without management approval and a co-ordinated campaign, success will be very diffi cult to achieve.”

It should be noted, says Wyma, CO2 footprint is not just about kilowatt hours of electricity usage, but includes water consumption, fuel consumption, transport, travel and more. “Meeting the challenge of reducing the CO2 footprint all around requires an integrated approach to energy management that gives organisations a complete picture of energy consumption across all areas as well as CO2 footprint. This big picture approach enables organisations to identify the best cost versus benefit relationships, so that initiatives for reducing consumption can be selected based on their benefit to the individual organisation, and then use these savings to drive adoption of efficient practices and embark upon other energy saving initiatives.”

He continues: “When it comes to improving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 footprint, having the end goal in mind of an integrated, holistic and big picture approach gives organisations clear objectives to work towards. As energy prices are only set to rise further, and CO2 emission reductions are becoming increasingly important from a legal perspective, adopting such an approach will stand organisations in good stead now and into the future.”

“Opportunities in this area abound, and we have the opportunity to grasp this locally and become major players on the international stage. There is no alternative to the low CO2 economy, and the sooner we embrace it the better,” James concludes.