Waste is endemic within ICT, and as a business unit, it stands to reason that it is one of the most inefficiently run and wasteful operations within an organisation. In fact, analysts estimate as much as $1.8 trillion per annum is wasted around the globe through inefficiencies within the IT department.

These inefficiencies include energy, labour and shelfware, all of which can be managed more effectively with significant returns on the bottom line.

In South Africa, in many respects, we are not embracing efficient computing. For example, we are more than happy to continue to allow PC infrastructure to run 24x7, when smart technology has been around for as long as 10 years to manage away this waste.

Yes, for many, virtualisation is seen as the flagship green project, which clearly ticks both the green and the efficient boxes; but often, virtual environments, when not managed efficiently, result in virtual sprawl and further wastage and inefficiency.

Waste is a significant problem in the IT department. The main culprits are as follows:
•    Energy waste, through the inefficient operation of IT infrastructure, both in distributed computing and in the data centre.

•     Software waste, through licence mismanagement and the proliferation of shelfware.
•     People waste, through inefficient delivery of service and support.
•     E-waste, typically as a result of incorrect and unnecessary refresh cycles.

In every example above, waste can be eliminated through the adoption of technology.
Power management of the desktop is a mature technology and server power management is rapidly catching up.

Managing the use and abuse of software can be accomplished through licence management tools, and more recently, with technologies that are specifically designed to highlight this waste.

The deployment of proper systems management, software distribution and helpdesk technologies lead to significant reduction in people costs, as well as delivering a far better experience to the end-user.

Finally, it is not always best to just replace hardware. Sweat your assets using technologies like VDI and prevent the proliferation of e-waste by replacing just for the sake of it.

About the author: Tim James is CEO of sustainableIT.