Green IT Expert John Lamb, PhD
Green IT is a subject we have dedicated significant (virtual) ink to on this blog. In discussing Green IT, we strive to illustrate the link between eco-friendly energy management and significantly lower business costs.
Helping us illustrate this link is John Lamb, PhD, as he contributes his insight to our Data Center Leaders interview series.
Lamb is a Senior Certified IT Architect with IBM Global Services. He has authored over 50 technical whitepapers and four books including, “The Greening of IT: How Companies Can Make A Difference For The Environment.”(1)
Below, we discuss the steps needed to make your data center eco-friendly, the cost savings that can be expected, and the future of green IT:
Evolving Solutions:
What tips would you offer for business seeking to reduce data center costs through green initiatives?
John Lamb:
A very straightforward process, and probably the most significant improvement data center management can make, is to use the standard server refresh policy (which is typically every four years) to move to virtual servers. Virtual data storage would follow.
Of course, the very first step would be to “get the facts” and diagnose where your data center energy is being used. In addition to the diagnose step, four other steps are to measure/manage, cool, virtualize, and build.
Additional steps such as communications/appointing an energy czar, analysis of application efficiency, and making use of rebates and incentives could further help improve the business case for going green.
Improving energy management is an ongoing endeavor. Improving energy efficiency requires focusing on a number of areas: the IT equipment, the data center facility, and the on-going energy management. The five-step process is a way to show a set of actions across all these areas. The idea should be to have continuous improvement.
Evolving Solutions:
Are there inherent dangers in trying to make your data center too cost efficient through green IT?
John Lamb:
There could be the “gold plating” syndrome. An engineer or IT architect can actually try to go too far in reducing energy use. The basic business case with a focus on a good return on investment (ROI) always needs to apply.
Back in the late seventies we designed solar heating for several IBM buildings and actually implemented a few solar heating projects. We could realize a significant reduction in energy use, but if the payback period is 20 years and the life of the solar heating system is only 20 years, then that’s not a good investment.
However, for data centers the cost saving incentives are so great companies have significant motivation from a financial standpoint to go green.
The Greening of IT by John Lamb, PhD
Evolving Solutions:
Your book, The Greening Of IT, describes how IT vendors are touting eco-friendly policies such as carbon-neutral computing in their sales pitches. With corporations typically driven more by bottom-line factors, do you fear taking the “green” angle may cause sales pitches to fall on deaf ears?
John Lamb:
I believe most companies do feel a corporate responsibility to help the environment. However, the best motivator to get started – whether it’s a company or an individual – is to show the economic benefits of reducing energy use.
Let’s face it, if a company or individual can be shown methods to cut energy use and save money by following best practices, that’s always a great motivator. If a company can be shown that along with cost savings the company is also helping the environment, then we have a real “win-win” scenario.
So, to answer your question, the primary goal should be to cut costs through energy efficiency. That goal will automatically lead to the goal of helping the environment.
Evolving Solutions:
Toby Velte, Global Technology Strategies with Microsoft, describes how he helps to ensure Green IT initiatives are funded by always relating projects to the pressures of capitalism, rather than the pressures of altruism. Do you find this to be true across the board, or have you seen some firms consider start to implement green IT purely from a sense of corporate responsibility?
John Lamb:
I agree with Toby. The first and best motivator to go green is to show the financial benefits from the energy savings.
As mentioned in the response to the previous question, after showing the economic benefits it’s a great idea to also show the benefits to the environment. Then we have a win-win situation for both the CFO and the executives who want to show corporate responsibility with improvements to the environment.
Evolving Solutions:
How would you recommend selling the idea of green IT to upper management who see it as little more than a fad?
John Lamb:
I’d recommend giving upper management some real life case study examples of the money that can be saved.
A typical US data center of 25,000 square feet will use approximately $2.6 million in energy costs per year at 12 cents per KWH. Improvements in energy management can save up to 50% of those costs. Over a million dollars in savings is typically a motivator that will drive sufficient interest.
If upper management can be given references along with business case details of other companies that have experienced significant energy cost savings by going green that should do the trick.
All companies will become serious about reducing energy through green IT once they realize the significant cost savings possible even by initially only going after the low hanging fruit.
Evolving Solutions:
Anything else you’d like to add on Green IT or data center cost avoidance?
John Lamb:
Two emerging technology areas for green IT that intrigue me are the use of fuel cells to power data centers and the use of private cloud computing for the ultimate in server and data storage virtualization.
Fuel cells are not new – they powered the space capsules that carried men to the moon. Hydrogen powered fuel cells are very environmentally desirable since the only output, in addition to energy, is water.
The problem is in obtaining the hydrogen. Currently hydrogen is usually produced through a very energy intensive process using natural gas and immense amounts of electricity. When technological breakthroughs allow us to produce hydrogen efficiently, then fuel cells for data center energy will be a significant step forward.
Cloud computing allows companies to move to virtualization of all computing systems and to very high levels of utilization. Cloud computing – both public and private – is evolving quickly and is already having an impact on green IT.
(1) Publisher disclaimer: “The Greening of IT: How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment” by John Lamb; ISBN 0137150830, published April 2009 by IBM Press (Copyright 2009 by International Business Machines Corporation). To view a sample chapter, please click on “Sample Pages”: www.ibmpressbooks.com/title/0137150830”
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