Sustainable Computing is Catching On

June 23rd, 2010

Slowly but surely, more and more companies are realizing the cost and energy benefits of going green. Take William Hill, a CIO from Dayton, Ohio for example. By replacing his old set up of 80 networked terminals consisting of varying assortments of PCs with thin clients (a computer/computer program that depends heavily on another computer which acts as a server to fulfill its traditional roles) for 60 of his staff and PCs for the rest, he was able to obtain optimal use at minimal cost. Initially, the reason behind Tills switch to thin clients was their lower cost. Once the new system was in effect, he noticed a corresponding drop in how much energy the organization was usingenough to save the city between 60,000 and 90,000 annually.While many companies are switching to eco-friendly business technologies for monetary reasons, others are making a change strictly for the environment. As Andrew Fanara, team leader at the EPA’s Energy Star Program puts it, “as competitive entities, we have to do more with less. So why not use less electricity as well?” It seems the sustainable computing trend is catching on. At a conference on opportunities for energy savings co-sponsored by the Energy Protection Agency, over 200 reps attended. These attendees included large companies such as AT&T, Target, and Visa.If the benefits are so obvious, why aren’t all businesses switching to sustainable computing? Unfortunately, greener computing entails more than new productsit requires changes in IT (information technology) policies and user behavior plus increased cooperation across departments. While IT practitioners are capable of helping companies cope with these changes, they have other day-to-day demands that take precedence. It’s important to recognize these minor obstacles standing in the way of sustainable computing and make every effort to get around them. Otherwise, companies will continue to use up valuable energy that could easily be reduced.

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