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

Overall, industry information on system power demands, utilization,
and opportunities for energy-efficiency improvements in data centers
have made it clear that there are significant worldwide opportunities to
reduce energy usage in data centers. In turn, they are promoting energy-
efficiency programs to encourage public and private entities to capture
those opportunities.

Collaboration Within Your Own Company

As discussed previously, green IT collaboration includes governments,
IT vendors, electric utilities, and many other groups. However, collabo-
ration is also needed among the different departments in your company.
The Uptime Institute recommends that every data center look at the fol-
lowing five issues for both short- and long-term energy savings:

■ Server consolidation, configuration, virtualization
■ Enabling “power-save” features on servers
■ Turning off “dead” servers (no longer in use but running) ptg
■ Pruning “bloatware” (the application efficiency issue)
■ Improving the site infrastructure energy-efficiency ratio

Typically, data centers can improve energy savings by 25 percent to
50 percent over a two-year period just by tackling each of these chal-
lenges in a cross-discipline way. The Institute has developed a multi-
functional team methodology known as Integrated Critical Environment
(ICE) to provide both the business and technical rigor required. A tried-
and-true method not on the preceding list is to send an e-mail to all
users announcing server shutdown for maintenance for a 24-hour period.
Active server users rebel instantly with reasons why their servers can’t be
shut down. If no angry responses result, shut them off indefinitely and
then disconnect the servers. This frees up space, energy, and manpower.
In reexamining, retrofitting, and redesigning data centers, mitigating
business risks are as important as energy savings. Such considerations are
at the nerve center of every company, large or small. Active participa-
tion, support, and collaboration are required from five key individuals
across the organization: representatives from the offices of the CFO,
CIO, real estate and facilities, data center IT, and facilities managers,
and the technical teams who deal with applications and IT solutions for
your company.