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1: The Importance of Green IT 3

Executives have one significant aspect of motivation to move to green IT
that is not covered in any depth in this book, and that is the area of corporate
social responsibility. A growing body of evidence shows that companies can
do well by doing good. In fact, books have been written about this corporate
motivation for going green. (See the reference to Green to Gold in the
Bibliography.) The Internet’s ubiquitous connectivity has created new rela-
tionships among businesses, customers, employees, and partners. People now
have access to massive amounts of information and opinions about products
and company practices. This information is available in every part of the
globe, every minute of every day. Collaboration over the Internet is taking
place during a time of increased visibility of corporate actions, a time when
customers’ perceptions of companies—and their consequent purchasing
behaviors—are fundamentally changing. Thus, having your company
become part of the green wave (to use a term used in the Green to Gold book)
should be an additional motivation (besides the standard business case) for
companies to pursue green IT.
Although this book emphasizes the business aspects, rather than the tech-
nical aspects, of green IT, several chapters give technical details, including
ptg
the case study chapters (Chapters 9, 10, and 11). I’m an engineer by training,
and I’m fascinated by the technical aspects of green IT. The energy used for
green IT and green data centers is electricity, so I would like to give a brief
review of the familiar electricity concepts and relationship of volts, amps, and
watts, which are fundamental in our quest to reduce energy used for green IT.
The relationship between volts, amps, and watts is this: watts = volts ×
amps. A watt is the measure of electrical power. Energy is power over a unit
of time. We pay for electricity in terms of energy used with a measure of kilo-
watt hours or KWH. One kilo watt hour (KWH) of electrical energy is the
energy used by having 10 one-hundred-watt light bulbs on for one hour. In
the New York City area, one KWH costs about 20 cents, whereas in West
Virginia, a KWH costs only about 5 cents. The big difference in cost is due
to the big difference in generation costs. With the high cost of electricity, the
region of the country is becoming a significant factor in deciding where to
locate a new data center.
Besides the cost per KWH, another aspect of basic electricity to consider
for your data center is the voltage level. In the United States, we typically
have two voltages to use in our homes, offices, and data centers: 110 volts or
220 volts. The actual volts can fluctuate somewhat during the day (as you can
discover using a simple voltmeter), and electrical engineers often give the
two voltages available as 120V or 208V. If you have an electric range, an elec-
tric clothes dryer, or a large electric air conditioner in your home, they’ll be