Just having a think about the energy rating scheme for domestic appliances and wondering why it couldn't be used for IT equipment
I know that there are a couple of schemes out there such as epeat and energy star but it is still confusing for organisations to select equipment that will be energy efficient over the equipments projected lifetime.
A lot of commercial organisations still prefer to purchase from the well known brands without considering the long term impact of energy consumption.
A prudent approach would be to combine base lining software as described in my previous post with accredited low energy pc's and servers, that may have a complete 5 year carbon offset associated with it.
In the home pc market, energy efficiency is not promoted and do users really think about how much energy their pcs are using?
There are some free energy monitoring tools out on the web for home users to implement energy saving measures on their home computers and to work out how much energy they are using.
Time for the computing industry to grasp the horns of the energy efficiency dilemma and get a recognised global standard for computing equipment.
Differing standards and a lack of transparancy causes confusion
Sort it out!
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Monday, 24 May 2010
IT Energy Baselining
Are you planning a Green or Sustainable IT strategy for your organisation?
What framework will you follow?
Here at Carbon3IT we recommend that your first action should be to baseline your current IT estate, this means to calculate the total number of devices present in your system and then determine the total energy consumed, and hence carbon emissions.
Whats that? you dont know where to start!
Well, Carbon3IT Ltd are VAR's for two energy monitoring/management products and are hoping to add a third in the near future.
Why do we carry two different systems and potentially a third?
A very good question and the reason is that one system calculates actual energy consumed on a device via the use of a "smart socket" this looks like a normal 6 socket extension lead, thus allowing the monitor, printer, speakers etc to be monitored as well, but it has a little secret device tucked away inside it that transmits the actual energy consumption data to a wireless ethernet zone controller that anyone with the appropriate security credentials can access from their own or any other pc in the network. The internet/intranet portal displays energy and carbon information that can be used to produce your CRC reports and provide information on energy use to your facilities manager/IT manager or management team.
However, we feel that the disruption that can be caused by unplugging all your IT devices to connect the smart sockets is really only warranted on SME IT systems or for trial energy monitoring sites not for companies that have more than 250 PC'S.
Thus we have a option for bigger customers or organisations that have more than one site that they need to monitor, hence our other product.
The second product we carry is a software based product that can be scaled globally to include all pc's in your organisation across the world. An agent is rolled out to a select number of PC's for trial purposes via your usual software installation method (via a .msi file, and with any systems management tool in the market) and the data is calculated using a specific algorithm that is tweaked and honed periodically to include real data gathered from real measurements. This data is then updated to a central server database at set intervals (configurable) where is can be read once again with anyone with the appropriate access rights, the beauty of this product is that it integrates with Active Directory and you can configure power policies and profiles to any pc in the organisation in order to manage your IT estate.
Out potential third product is another software based agent/server solution, we'll keep you updated as to when it becomes available in our product portfolio.
Carbon3IT believe that you cannot manage what you cant measure and we provide the tools for you to measure your IT Energy so that you can manage it.
Pricing is very competitive and the TCO and ROI for both these products is small, in fact both products will pay for themselves in the first year of use, and you will also continue to acrue the savings in subsequent years.
We also provide a try now pay later option on both products, we effectively are paid with your energy savings in the first year.
Contact us on c3it@btinternet.com for more information
What framework will you follow?
Here at Carbon3IT we recommend that your first action should be to baseline your current IT estate, this means to calculate the total number of devices present in your system and then determine the total energy consumed, and hence carbon emissions.
Whats that? you dont know where to start!
Well, Carbon3IT Ltd are VAR's for two energy monitoring/management products and are hoping to add a third in the near future.
Why do we carry two different systems and potentially a third?
A very good question and the reason is that one system calculates actual energy consumed on a device via the use of a "smart socket" this looks like a normal 6 socket extension lead, thus allowing the monitor, printer, speakers etc to be monitored as well, but it has a little secret device tucked away inside it that transmits the actual energy consumption data to a wireless ethernet zone controller that anyone with the appropriate security credentials can access from their own or any other pc in the network. The internet/intranet portal displays energy and carbon information that can be used to produce your CRC reports and provide information on energy use to your facilities manager/IT manager or management team.
However, we feel that the disruption that can be caused by unplugging all your IT devices to connect the smart sockets is really only warranted on SME IT systems or for trial energy monitoring sites not for companies that have more than 250 PC'S.
Thus we have a option for bigger customers or organisations that have more than one site that they need to monitor, hence our other product.
The second product we carry is a software based product that can be scaled globally to include all pc's in your organisation across the world. An agent is rolled out to a select number of PC's for trial purposes via your usual software installation method (via a .msi file, and with any systems management tool in the market) and the data is calculated using a specific algorithm that is tweaked and honed periodically to include real data gathered from real measurements. This data is then updated to a central server database at set intervals (configurable) where is can be read once again with anyone with the appropriate access rights, the beauty of this product is that it integrates with Active Directory and you can configure power policies and profiles to any pc in the organisation in order to manage your IT estate.
Out potential third product is another software based agent/server solution, we'll keep you updated as to when it becomes available in our product portfolio.
Carbon3IT believe that you cannot manage what you cant measure and we provide the tools for you to measure your IT Energy so that you can manage it.
Pricing is very competitive and the TCO and ROI for both these products is small, in fact both products will pay for themselves in the first year of use, and you will also continue to acrue the savings in subsequent years.
We also provide a try now pay later option on both products, we effectively are paid with your energy savings in the first year.
Contact us on c3it@btinternet.com for more information
Virtualisation & Thin Clients is not the only answer!
Many companies involved in Green IT will tell you that virtialisation and thin clients are the answer to sustainable computing. Its not!
Here at Carbon3IT Ltd we think that whilst virtualisation and thin client technology are methods of reducing your overall IT spend in terms of space, power and cooling, they are not the only ones.
We advocate a holistic approach, a fundamental review of all your IT activities, the striping out of un-used software, the removal of masses of identical files clogging up your storage, the reuse of pc's for older applications and for systems that do not require high spec pc's.
In essence keep it simple.
We can assist all types of organisations to reduce energy spend, clear out the clutter and make your Information Technology sustainable, contact us on c3it@btinternet.com for more information or visit our website www.carbon3it.com, we are in the process of updating it to provide a better user experience so please bear with us whilst we complete these updates.
We aim to update this site daily but sometimes life and business gets in the way.
Here at Carbon3IT Ltd we think that whilst virtualisation and thin client technology are methods of reducing your overall IT spend in terms of space, power and cooling, they are not the only ones.
We advocate a holistic approach, a fundamental review of all your IT activities, the striping out of un-used software, the removal of masses of identical files clogging up your storage, the reuse of pc's for older applications and for systems that do not require high spec pc's.
In essence keep it simple.
We can assist all types of organisations to reduce energy spend, clear out the clutter and make your Information Technology sustainable, contact us on c3it@btinternet.com for more information or visit our website www.carbon3it.com, we are in the process of updating it to provide a better user experience so please bear with us whilst we complete these updates.
We aim to update this site daily but sometimes life and business gets in the way.
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