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The Greening of IT
164 How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment

large companies in getting all their separate business groups to give up their
“fiefdoms” and agree to share computer resources. In many cases, the differ-
ent groups also need to give up their long-established business process appli-
cations to consolidate not only on shared hardware but, where possible, also
on common application software. By standardizing as much as possible, these
organizations achieve cost reduction that includes energy reduction.
Consolidation and resource sharing not only give significant cost reduction
but also provide benefits in greater system availability (larger systems usually
include failover), performance (through larger servers), and disaster recovery
(since all business groups on a consolidated system share the same robust dis-
aster recovery plan). The following sections give details on Columbia’s green
data center plan.

Columbia University’s Analysis and Plan for Creating a
Green Data Center
Columbia University’s IT team analyzed the financial and political costs of
energy in addition to environmental concerns. Opportunities for energy con-
ptg
servation included equipment, infrastructure, and managerial practices.
These opportunities are indicated in the well-known Lawrence Berkeley
National Lab pie-chart, as shown in Figure 10.1.
Columbia University’s green IT plan includes a pilot of an Advanced Data
Center. That data center will be used for rigorous before-and-after measure-
ments of recommended best practices and innovative equipment and infra-
structure improvements. The Advanced Data Center will be a production
environment. All university groups will participate.
Columbia’s plan seeks to improve the energy efficiency and environmental
impact of the administrative systems currently in a centralized data center
and, at the same time, significantly expand the available capacity in the cen-
tralized data center. Included in the plan are provisions to make sure that les-
sons learned on green IT are widely applicable and broadcast first to the
community and later to peer universities and organizations. Students from
Columbia’s School of Engineering and the School of Business will help with
the communication. This will help lay the foundation for plans to submit the
results to a number of educational and government groups. The opportunity
to rigorously measure recommended best practices and technological innova-
tions in a real-world environment, validated by the scrutiny incorporated
from the beginning, will be a significant benefit to both Columbia and,
potentially, many other universities and organizations in their quest for
green IT. New York State’s NYSERDA organization is providing funding
support for Columbia’s green IT project.