Green IT Blog!!!

With the constant expansion into semi-urban and rural areas, Bank of India (BoI) faced a herculean task, that of finding power for its branches and equipments. Most of the regions beyond the metros are subject to acute power shortages, load shedding , erratic power supply or “no-power” at all. Conventional systems like UPS, inverters or gensets, are not only expensive to run but also harm the environment with their toxic fumes. “In fact, the erratic power supply in many rural branches was even insufficient to charge the batteries of the UPS. Thus we could not depend on them, as in most cases, UPS even if fully charged could suffice for a fixed and short duration. That is when we started looking at alternatives, that was dependable and cleaner. That is where solar power comes into play,” says PA Kalyansundar, GM (IT), BoI.

As a result, few years back, BoI started the solar energy pilot. Based on its success, the pilot was extended to 200 branches across India. The results have been truly amazing. Earlier, due to dependency on electric power to function in the computerized environment, non-availability or acute power shortage led to scenarios where the total branch working along with customer service was unable to function properly. The Bank discovered that gensets were proving to be hazardous to the health of the employees and also that generating conventional power was un-economical as the kerosene, diesel or petrol was not easily available due to the shortages of stock in rural areas. Branch personnel had to travel long distances to procure the fuel required to run generator set.
Thus, by usage of renewable, non-polluting, clean, eco-friendly source – Solar Power computerized branches are able to offer un-interrupted Banking services to all its customers.

“By implementation of solar energy our desire to contribute and to do a little bit for the environment has also been fulfilled,” says Kalyansundar. According to him expected returns from the solar power project can be classified into two parts: – 1) subjective or cost (visible) benefits and 2) objective (invisible) benefits. The normal life cycle of the system is estimated to be approx. 25 years. While calculating the financials the Bank found that the payback period is approx. 4-5 years. Hence for the remaining life-cycle, cost will be nominal for annual maintenance. In addition, the burden on the profit and loss of the branch is reduced on account of zero expenditure on Gensets, fuel for gensets and also maintenance of these gensets. Read more…

TERI has developed a unique solution for the power problem faced by CSCs (common service centres). TERI’s solution, named Solverter™, has an intelligent dual charge battery that can be charged from solar energy as well as from AC mains. It comes in a rugged box—the size of an ordinary UPS/inverter. This solution eliminates the normal UPS and battery; instead it uses a 75-W solar panel, a 100-AH battery, and the Solverter™.

The solution has been pilot tested at various locations across India and has successfully provided an average backup of four to six hours in the absence of electricity. The pilot sites were in rural villages, where CSCs will operate or are operating. These tests were conducted with the SCAs (service centre agencies) that have already set up CSCs. One test was carried out at IL&FS at Baramati, Maharashtra; the pack provided continuous backup for up to six hours during the non-availability of electricity at the centre.

Presently, the pack powers a single computer, with standard software, a printer/scanner (Multi Functional Device). Upgrades and customizations are available on order.

(Shashwat DC. Published in Dataquest)

Tapta camee karabhaya haraye Visvakar mane |
Namastamo bhinighnaya rucaye lokasakshine ||

Salutations to you, possessor of the lustre of refined gold, destroyer of ignorance, the architect of the universe. Salutations to the destroyer of darkness, Splendor incarnate; the witness of the world.

A shloka from Aditya Stotram

Among the pantheon of Hindu gods – close to 30 million, according to claims – Surya has an unique and exalted position. The sun god is worshipped as one, ‘who knoweth all that lives’, and regarded as sustainer of life on our planet. In the Rig Veda there are quite a few hymns that elucidate the role played by Surya and implore him to continue his benign mercy. According to scriptures, Aditya Stotram (from which the above shloka has been quoted) was a prayer performed by Lord Rama, asking for power and energy to annihilate the evil hordes of Ravana and slay the demon king himself.

Not only for element worshipping Hindus; the sun was an important deity for the ancient Egyptians who worshipped him as Ra. It is said that the Greek city states were also in
some ways tapping the solar energy for their daily use and even for warfare. Remember the story on how Archimedes was able to burn ships with a very powerful convex lens that magnified the solar ray. Even during the medieval times, according to some researchers, as far back as 1447, Leonardo Da Vinci had predicted and prescribed the use of solar energy on a major scale for the sake of industrialization.

Thus, since time immemorial we have been looking up at the sun to give us power and energy to sustain our selves. The fact is true even today, in the age of supersonic jets and inter-planetary probes, we still look at sun to power our home appliances, office equipments, cars and what not. Much like Lord Rama did thousands of years ago, we are still looking at the sun, albeit instead of bowing our heads and cupping our hands, we have photovoltaic solar cells that do the same for us. The difference being now the worship is termed as clean energy or solar energy. And there are very pertinent reasons – more so for a developing nation like India – why quite like the ancients before us, we are again looking at the sun to save us.

Need for Solar
The past few years have been quite astonishing in terms of economic growth in India. With the economy growing at close to 9% y-o-y, everywhere around us are visible and tell-tale signs of this growth. But even as the those big expressways and massive glass buildings come up, there are serious questions that are being raised and need to be addressed; do we have the means to power this growth? Read more…

Climate change is no more a fancy technical term to be debated by scientists and researchers, rather a hard reality that is affected and felt by all of us. For centuries, man had been oblivious to the impact his actions had on the ecology. Thus, unhindered environmental degradation and pollution continued unabated under the garb of progress. Every detrimental action was excused with the term, for a better tomorrow.

But now that tomorrow seems to be turning into today, we seem to have started seeing the fruits of our actions. A vivid example could be this years winter and summer in the city of Mumbaiboth being unusually harsh. It is obvious that there is a shift taking place, and, undoubtedly, a shift for the worse.

The scenario seems to be pretty bleak and beyond our control, isnt it? So, is there anything that we can do, and is there anyone who can save us? The answer to both the questions is no. Just because the problem is on us, does not mean that the solution is beyond us. In fact, each and every one of us is a part of the solution. I firmly believe that if every single individual, including you and me, were to make a concerted effort towards saving electricity and not polluting our environment, the solution would appear by itself. The onus is very much upon us, and every small step will go a long way in fighting climate change. Let me share with you my experiences borne over years of running IT systems at the State Bank of India.

One might wonder how the IT and environment might be related? The answer is not hard to guessin almost all modern organizations, IT systems are the biggest guzzler of power. Thus, IT departments can become the harbinger of change and lead the way in terms of environmentally friendly practices. But typically, when companies talk of Green IT, they refer to concepts like green data centers, virtualization, green storage, mainframes, blade servers, etc. There seems to be a lot of hype around these concepts with various vendors trying to sell their products under the green garb. Read more…

Emission trading seems like a win-win in the short term but not fair as a long-term solution to global warming.

Considering the pace at which global warming is changing the environment, even cynics are unable to ignore its importance. Also, considering factors like oil prices at a historical high, global food crisis due to diversion of crops for making hybrid fuels, derivative trading, food loss due to natural disasters, etc, each of us is personally affected with increased cost of living and contending with weather extremes. Not forgetting the drastic consequences for techies as we thrive in a global economy and are connected to businesses worldwide. Lately, there has been a heated debate about emission trading.

What is Emission Trading?
A decade ago, it was realized that without economic incentives, one cannot get governments worldwide to work together to stop global warming, this concept was floated at the United Nations Convention on Climate Change and agreed to by 192 countries that later signed the Kyoto Protocol. In Kyoto Protocol, different countries were allocated different emission limits. If the limit was exceeded, they could balance it by buying emission credits from countries that were below their allocated limits.

However, it is hard to assign emission credits to an entire country. Thus, it was decided that industries and other groups inside a country should be used to determine the emission limits, making them the proprietors of emission trading. The trading is done by a process called cap and trade where various companies that wish to trade approach either an international authority or a government body that assigns them an emission cap. This can be more easily explained through the mark-rank school system.

Assume the authority assigns a company ABC a 70% emission cap while another company DEF gets an emission cap of 60%. In the exams, however, ABC gets only 50% while DEF secures 80%. In a school system, ABC would rank lower as it got less marks than DEF. However, since pollution is considered harmful, higher is not considered better, thus, the mark-rank system is reversed. In the emission trading system, ABC is ranked higher as it got only 50% as opposed to its allocated 70%, earning a credit of 20%. This it can sell to DEF that went past its cap of 60% and got 80%. While ABC makes money by polluting less, DEF will lose money as it will have to buy credits from others to achieve its limit. Overall, the total emission levels set are met and pollution levels dont increase.

Simply put, companies that pollute less than their limit become sellers and those that pollute more than their prescribed limit become buyers. The buyers are penalized as they have to buy credits from the sellers. Thus, emission trading attaches a monetary tag to pollution, which hopefully will induce companies/countries to pollute less by adopting environment-friendly practices, and, in turn, reduce global emissions.

Is it Good?
Several companies worldwide are already indulging emission trading. This is particularly true for tech companies, especially in the energy, manufacturing, and IT

• Use of Alternative Energy Technologies will Increase: Some agree. John Findlay, London, says, With rising oil prices worldwide, change to alternative technologies like solar, wind, and hybrid fuels is inevitable especially in developed countries and emerging powers like India and China. This is good as it means less emissions. Others disagree. Jenny Jackson, Los Angeles, says, This is sheer baloney. Whoever thinks that ordinary people can afford the expensive hybrid models is crazy. For example, the auto-insurance rates are high and you cant get it fixed if there is a problem. For power to see a real change, we need alternative power on a massive scale. With powerful corporate lobbyists, this is not easy.

• Carbon Tax: Instead of emission trading, introduce carbon tax for the polluters, say some. J Ramakrishna, Hyderabad, says, Instead of emission trading which doesnt reduce total emission levels, it would be better if governments imposed a high tax on polluters. This will make them use energy-efficient technologies. Ashley Roebuck, systems consultant, US, disagrees, That doesnt make any fiscal sense. Taxing a company for emission will make production costlier, possibly cause its bankruptcy, and lead to massive layoffs. Since energy-related companies contribute substantially to pollution, itll result in oil price rise and related commodity prices.

• Trading on Poverty: Aditya Dasgupta, Pune, says, Emissions trading involves the trading of permits to emit greenhouse gases. Who are the biggest polluters? The West. And since they cant reduce emissions, they think by offering us money they can meet their goals. But what about the millions of people here who still dont have access to basic amenities? While we concentrate on poverty eradication, Western countries should change their destructive consumption patterns. Emission trading is wrong as it is like futures trading on poverty. Others disagree. Jessica Hamilton, Australia said, Poverty trading? Emission trading brings in money to poor countries that can be used to eradicate poverty. More importantly, companies/governments of emerging economies wont make the same mistakes the developed nations made.

• Clean Development Mechanisms: Emission trading will mean more companies will opt for clean development mechanism (CDM), so they can make money. Says Nisha Menon, New Delhi, If you look at bagasse (the pulp/dry waste left after the juice is extracted from sugar cane, grapes, etc) based cogeneration in sugar mills in India, carbon trading has driven companies to look at higher efficiency technologies to burn bagasse and generate more electricity which ends in the electricity supply pool. In a supply deficit situation, this may seem hypothetical but such efforts actually help in reducing the coal dominated utility capacity addition. Desiree Annaheim, Switzerland, disagrees, This might be true for certain companies. CDMs are harder to implement for companies from emerging economies because of the development factor. It would make more sense for developed countries to implement CDMs on a massive scale and offer developing countries economic incentives to implement them.

Way Forward
Emission trading seems like a win-win in the short term but not fair as a long-term solution to global warming. The way forward would be for individuals worldwide to choose energy fasting.

Energy fast is pretty much the same as a food fast, except you go completely without man-made energy for a day. But why energy fast instead of a natural resource like water fast. This is because after population pressures, human energy use is the second link in the chain of environmental destruction. All humans need energyfor warmth, cooking, manufacturing, transportation, and communication. Evidently, location, refining, production, and distribution of consumer-ready power itself require energy.

If you think that as an individual you cannot make a difference, think again. There is an old African proverb, If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.(Deepa Kandaswamy. The author is the founder-moderator of the IndianWISE e-group.
(c) Deepa Kandaswamy. First serial rights, CyberMedia 2008. Any quotes or reprints from this article must link to this article and credit author Deepa Kandaswamy and Dataquest. This article may not be distributed in any manner without written consent from the author.)

Monsantos global data center was built as a typical data center and it was over forty years old. Some aspects of the facility were beginning to show its age, also the data center was getting way too crowded for comfort, and that was when a project was evolved where it was decided to look at building a new data center.

As a result of Monsantos green culture and the companys commitment to environmental conservation, justification for the project was not a difficult task for the companys CIO.

At the onset, it was decided to see if we could build a data center for the future, which meant that the data center would lower operational costs and decrease power consumed, and would also enable growth for the company by using innovative techniques in terms of spacing out the data center.

When we began designing a new $21 mn data center about five years ago, it was a decidedly green effort from the word go.

The 40,000-sq-ft facility, which was completed last July, was designed with a 17-ft floor-to-ceiling span to promote airflow and eliminate the need for power or cooling units on the data centers floor. And the glass screen that covers the front of the building isnt just aesthetically pleasing: it can withstand the wind force of an F3 tornado and screens 60% of the suns rays, thus, lowering the demands on the buildings cooling systems. The data center has also been built to withstand category 4 earthquakes as well.

The carefully planned facility initiatives would result in savings of around 27% energy consumed as compared to a conventional data center. Apart for this, there was a large-scale focus around infrastructure rationalization/consolidation with the increasing use of virtualization. Over the past three years, Monsanto has eliminated 334 servers, and it is running just 16 Windows- and Linux-based machines today. Around ten global data centers were consolidated into one single hub and this has helped us realize energy efficiency savings as well.

Monsanto has also committed to purchase 10% of the total energy consumption at its headquarters from renewable sources such as wind power, and has a concerted effort to work in an efficient and effective telecommuting model.

The data center was completed in the second half of 2007 and saves more than 25% of building energy, compared to a conventionally designed data center. We also anticipate receiving Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design (LEED) certification this spring, making it the first LEED registered data center in the state of Missouri, and the third LEED certified data center in the country.

Migration of most servers and services has been completed from the old data center to the new data center and the teams in India were part of the global data center upgrade project.

Some Takeaways
Green data centers result in a win-win situation where the environment issue is addressed and the costs of operations are also brought down.

By making simple investments in terms of the type of glass procured, the height of the ceilings, the physical location of servers, etc, you can derive significant costs savings in terms of energy consumed and reducing operational costs.

By strategically looking at areas like physical data center consolidation through virtualization, significant savings can be realized for the company as well as for the environment.

(Anand Kumar. The author is regional lead, IT at Monsanto. Published in Dataquest)

Sun Microsystems have built programs in which their servers and software programs are configured to provide more eco-friendly and more efficient platforms.

No, we are not bringing a new discovery on the rays of the ubiquitous sunshine but solely on environment-friendly decisions taken by Sun Microsystems that have reaped rich dividends. Much before the color green became the flavor of IT communities across the world, corporations such as Sun Microsystems had initiated systems and processes that only led others to follow, giving a first-mover advantage for this over a two-decade-old entity that prides in its prowess of operating in the open source arena.

Rich Green, EVP, Sun Microsystems, says: Our eco-green efficiency covers a wide variety of thingsour Niagara 2 microprocessor with its throughput per watt is just unparallel in the market. Even if you look at Solaris and Dtrace, its all about getting more efficiency in the existing platforms.

Green also went on to mention the intricacies of working on a Dtrace platform where one achieves a 30% performance escalation in flat two and half hours of working in Dtrace, which reduces power consumption by at least 30%. We have built programs in which our servers and software are configured to provide more eco-friendly and more efficient platforms, points out Green.

Giving credit to the culture at Sun, Green says: One reason we started early is that a lot of work which we did all these years has been about efficiency, whether its past performance or voltage or software performance, and this is just another step. Application of efficiency and good design has become the epicenter of this enterprise.

With developers worried most about the time-to-market in every application they develop, the concern for most corporations is the path to be taken from having a concept to developing a market around, building an ecosystem over it, and having a user base that would give a competitive advantage.

Typically, the company that starts first gets the advantage. Because of this rapid time to market, developers tend not to look far ahead and so they are not thinking about what happens if I am actually successful in getting this application to the market and I track a whole bunch of usersthe technology that I am employing currently helps me to address challenges later, whether its performance or scalability, and from a Solaris perspective, states Ian Murdock, VP, Developer and Community Marketing, Sun Microsystems.

Murdock adds that promoting environment-centric initiatives or technologies is the same as taking the right technological decisions upfront which allow the company to augment in scale throughout.

With green technologies becoming increasingly important, Gartner Research stated that by the end of 2008, companies across the world would make public statements in their financial results on their carbon emission norms, and Sun Microsystems continues to lead the way on this front.

(Prasad Ramasubramanian. Published in Dataquest)

Over the past year or two, green data centers have turned into a big concern for Indian enterprises. Here is examining a few aspects of going green.

As soon as it was out that Dataquest would be coming up with a story on green data centers, people started calling, emailing, and cajoling us to include them or their clients in the feature. Few stories in the recent past have created such an interest, especially before it was even penned.

This interest and attention got us thinking and we started working on the story with greater zeal and vigor. While much of the calls till now were from the vendor side, we decided to speak to a few CIOs on the subject as well. Not surprisingly, even CIOs seemed to be quite interested in going green. For the CIO community, the main issue was not the “green” as we often talk about (ecological, environment, etc) but the “green” as we love and cherish (namely the rupee and dollar). The challenges faced by the CIOs are two-fold-on one hand cut costs and on the other do more. They are virtually walking the tightrope. It is in this scenario that green becomes important and green data centers vital.

Power’full’ Argument
End of December 2007, Dataquest had kicked off the coverage for green IT with a three-city event hosted in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi. At all the three events, the participating CIOs from some of the most well known enterprises ranging from one of the biggest banks in India to a small call center discussed and debated on one thing-power, or, more precisely, electricity. Considering the erratic power supply in the country, where even metros are not spared from load-shedding, energy consumption is a big issue.

To display the pattern of energy usage, Sandeep Nair, MD, Emerson Network Power India, shares a graph that displays the levels of energy consumed by the computing and the overheads in a typical data center.

According to Nair, the energy usage seems to be evenly split between computing (52%) and overheads (48%). “The growth in installation of blade servers and computing requirement is pushing the heal loads per rack to extreme density racks with heat loads to more than 15 kW/hrs, which is driving cooling challenges of data centers,” he says.

Ganesh Mahabala, regional director, India and Saarc, VMware, also touches upon cooling costs. “In a tropical country like India, companies mainly rely on air conditioning to keep servers at the right temperature. The more powerful the machine, the more cool air needed to keep it from overheating. Energy costs, now about 10% of the average IT budget, could rise to 50% in a matter of years unless companies take radical measures, and CIOs are well aware of this,” he says.

And not to forget, there is still a very valid environmental cost to it all, as Rajesh Saha, country manager, Enterprise Systems, Systems and Technology Group, IBM India/South Asia, reminds us. “With global temperatures on the rise, many environmentalists are calling for significant reduction in the generation of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels. Commercial electricity consumption is a major factor in rising atmospheric CO2 levels, and data centres are a significant, and growing, part of the problem. Worldwide, data centers are reported to consume 40 tW/hrs of electricity each year, producing an estimated 17.2 bn tonnes of CO2 emissions. This is a concern for all and needs to be addresses by all parties involved,” he says.

Need to Go Virtual
|Once the CIO has analyzed the energy consumption pattern and chalked out a strategy, there are quite a few ways to address the issue. Of the many ways, virtualization is gaining immense ground over the past few years. In a typical scenario, enterprises will have a host of servers, often one for every enterprise-wide application, or racks and racks of storage containing archaic information. Virtualization of software or server can be of immense help as companies can then consolidate their infrastructure.

In fact, a virtualization device or a software application can track the server space and remap applications to different physical locations as necessary. With virtualization, information can be made location-independent and can be redirected across multiple I/O devices and platforms. Little wonder then almost everyone from Cisco, IBM, down to Emerson, HDS, emphazised the need to go virtual.

According to IDC estimates, un-utilized server capacity equates to approximately $140 bn, or more than 20 mn servers. Also, the fact that at 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted annually per server, these un-utilized servers produce a total of more than 80 mn tonner of CO2 per year. This is more than that is emitted from Thailand and more than half of all countries in South America. “Besides the effect on the company’s bottom line, virtualization is positively impacting the environment. Gartner estimates that 1.2 mn workloads run in VMware virtual machines, which represents an aggregate power savings of about 8.5 bn kWh-more electricity than is consumed annually in some small countries globally for heating, ventilation and cooling,” says Mahabala.

Nonetheless, Sumit Mukhija, national sales manager, Data Center, Cisco India and Saarc, warns against the virtualization fad and talks of holistic virtualization that encompasses all the different aspects rather than just piece meal. “A key aspect of data center greening is virtualization. Where organizations rolled out server virtualization they became memory bound on their servers, then I/O bound, and then CPU bound. But without virtualising their network and without virtualising their storage, the full benefits of overall efficient resource utilization cannot be realized. And therein lies the key to data center transformation,” he says.

Storing Better
Another big area that requires CIOs attention is storage. There has been a massive spike over the years in the amount of data that flows through an enterprise these days; with virtually everything going digital, the growth has been phenomenal. Also, due to compliance issues, companies are required to store archaic and old data for longer periods of time. It is a daunting task. Initially, companies went in for either bigger or better storage racks. Result, rooms’ choc-o-block with redundant storage. Not only does it consume humongous amount of energy in terms of usage and cooling, but is also a headache in terms of maintenance.

“Over the years, storage of data has become highly inefficient, with low utilization, over allocation, stranded storage, too many redundant copies, low access speeds, inefficient search, and disruptive movement and migration. The actual utilization of storage is less than 30%, and 70% of data over 60-days-old is rarely referenced again. Continuing to buy more of the same old storage architectures will no longer be an option. Buying faster storage processors with larger capacity disks on the same 20-year-old architectures will not solve the problem of inefficient use of storage. New storage architectures will be required to meet this demand for greater efficiency,” states Vivekanand Venugopal, director, Products and Solutions, Apac, Hitachi Data Systems.

And it is not only the storage rack that sucks power but a number of other peripheral devices as well, like Shyam Gopal, regional manager, India and South East Asia, Brocade, points out. “Many devices have a ‘fair’ level of energy drain in the networked storage space. The SAN Director, which is at the core of the network, is traditionally a significant consumer of power and heat emission. Historically, many organizations have installed Directors in specialized racks that take up more than one floor tile just to allow proper ventilation via the usage of heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Ironically, these HVAC systems at times may consume even more power than the equipment they are trying to cool,” he states.

Analysis of a typical 5,000-sq ft data center shows that demand-side computing equipment account for 52% of energy usage and suppluy-side system account for 48%

Meanwhile, Jim Simon, director, Marketing, Apac, Quantum, talks about the need for something as simple and easy as data de-duplication using efficient storage mediums like tape libraries. “Data de-duplication technology reduces space, power, and cooling requirements enough to make it practical to use disk as a retention medium for weeks or months without breaking the operational budget. However, as data needs to be retained for multiple quarters and years, and the demand for fast recovery diminishes, the most effective retention medium for most users is tape. Tape cartridges in a tape library consume power at lower rates than any disk system, and tape cartridges stored in a vault consume the least of all, as well as provide the lowest aggregated storage cost per GB,” he says.

Gopal, talking about the economics of green storage, says, “Due to tightening purse strings across India, many companies are sensitive toward their IT expenditure. However, many companies do not realize the extent of cost savings that come hand in hand with green storage solution initiatives and how it can create more efficient data storage management. With increased uptake of energy efficient storage products in data centers, many companies can decrease their energy consumption by up to over 20-30% and benefit from cost savings,” he adds.

Even though there seems to be a lot of awareness and interest among Indian enterprises in terms of ‘greening the data center’, there is also a certain amount of distrust and reluctance. Many CIOs claim that vendors are peddling their ‘ware’ under the green garb. “For most of these companies, from server to storage and others, green is a way to sell more. And right now it seems to be a very fashionable way to do it,” says a senior IT head at one of India’s leading banks.

At first look, the claim does not seem to be unjust considering the glut of “green” equipment in the market. Scores of white papers, case studies, facts and figures seem to add to the confusion. Some say that consolidation of hardware is the key, while others state that software-based solution is a key aspect. All this loud green marketing is making the CIO sceptic.

But vendors dispel the charge. “Going green is not at all a gimmick. The growing cost of energy is painfully evident for IT managers, who, in turn, are insisting that vendors put as much emphasis on product design for greenness as more traditional features such as performance and reliability,” says Simon from Quantum.

Whereas Durgadutt Nedungadi, director, Marketing & Alliances, Technology Solutions Group, HP India Sales, talks of how ‘operating energy-efficient green data centers has become a priority for Indian CIOs’ and the challenges faced by them. “One chief concerns is lack of standards and information-sharing. We believe, industry groups are making progress on establishing best practices, but end-users are struggling with the complexity and scope of the challenges in their facilities. The biggest stumbling block one comes up against in transitioning from the existing data center to green data center is how to do it. There are financial implications also attached to it. Companies with servers or storage virtualization deployments face low data center spending. Other challenges for data center managers are tough internal service-level agreements, continuing data center expansion, and staffing issues,” he states.

Rather than scepticism, the lack of policies to guide the process is the real reason why companies haven’t implemented green IT initiatives, states Nedungadi.

In conclusion, it has dawned upon us that the issue of a ‘green data center’ is too big and too critical so as to be covered in a single story, thus there will be more stories on the same subject in the coming ‘green IT’ segments of the magazine. So all of those who missed the boat this time, and the ones we could not write about, well, need not worry, there is still a lot more to come. Keep those mails coming. We don’t intend to rest till all the data centers are green in some ways or the other.

(Shashwat DC. Published in Dataquest)

CIOs nowadays are facing a rather perplexing scenario; on one hand, computing requirements of the company are shooting through the roof and on the other hand, they need to also pinch the pennies by bringing down the ever-increasing operating costs. This modern challenge is really testing the CIO mettle.

Of the many solutions, good ol mainframe could possibly be an answer. With virtualization and consolidation being the key, mainframe could play an important role in greening the data center, asserts Jim Stallings, general manager (Enterprise Systems Division), IBM Systems & Technology Group, who looks after the System Z line. In a tte–tte with Dataquest, he speaks about the numerous challenges faced by enterprises and how they could be better managed. Excerpts

How relevant is the Green issue when it comes to data centers?
My role allows me to hop across the globe talking to our enterprise customers; the number one discussion these days is power, cooling, or energy consumption. Reducing the demand for energy and greening the data center is a part of that. CXOs are not much interested in the technology, but rather the economics of it. They want to know how much money do they spend on energy. Sometimes thats a difficult thing to figure out and once they find out, they are completely stumped. What they are most surprised about is the rate of growth, especially the future projections. These companies head honchos are looking for ways to cut the ever-growing running costs and also have a better ecological footprint. The big question becomes what can we do about it?

One solution is to use more energy efficient servers. What many of them have concluded is that they have to re-look at the way a data center is designed and run, where it is located, etc. There is a need for a new approach and I see that happening. The green movement, so as to say, is not about technology, rather economics.

How is System Z a part of that solution?
Gartner surveys show that over the past ten years, the number of servers going into the data centers is up 800%, power and cooling cost is up 400%, and system administrative cost is up 600%. So it isnt about acquiring the technology, it is managing it, cooling it, and conditioning the environment. This is where a mainframe scores, a System Z scores. There is a lot of discussion around consolidationcan I get large servers to replace Mini 100s, that will not only eliminate the cost of managing multiple servers but other factors like cooling, floor space, etc?

The mainframe represents cornerstone virtualization and has massive consolidation property. The current system (Z10) runs twice the speed of predecessor, has 70% more capacity, and can take 1,500 x86 boxes and swallow them down to one mainframe. So just think of the real estate and the floor space. It uses 85% less energy than these 1,500 x86 boxes, so customers can get an immediate benefit by going mainframe.

What are the biggest challenges faced in terms of greening the data center?
The CIO deals with this issue in multiple dimensions. First, there is the technology, waves of new platforms or applications that CIOs have to choose from. There are large pools of data. They need to embrace new innovation, simplify environment, sharing applications, and create dynamic environment in small stages.

How has been the response so far from India?
Very encouraging. We are doubling our sales on an annual basis, and some of the most respected Indian companies are our clients, like Satyam, HCL, TCS, Cognizant, etc.

(Shashwat DC. Published in Dataquest)

Across the globe, LEED ratings have become synonymous with green buildings. Formulated in 2000, leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED) rating system has gained immense credit across the world for promoting sustainable architectural techniques and the green building movement. The LEED rating was formulated by the USGBC (United States Green Building Council) and has over 14,000 member organizations from every sector of the building industry.

LEED ratings have gained immense favor in India as well, with a growing number of LEED rated projects coming up. In fact, the ratings for Indian buildings have been modified to suit the ecological and environmental needs and requirements of the region. Tom Hicks, vice president, LEED ND and International, USGBC, has been at the very forefront of the movement and oversees the development and implementation of all LEED rating systems. In a detailed interview with Dataquest, Hicks talks about the evolution of the LEED ratings and the numerous benefits that come along with green buildings. Excerpts

How is the concept of ‘Green Building’ relevant to the issue of climate change? How can green architecture aid in the bigger fight for survival?
In the US, buildings account for 39% of carbon dioxide CO2 emissions per year, more than any other sector. While buildings are part of the problem, they are also part of the solution.  The LEED green building rating system is an immediate and measurable way to make an impact on climate change and is a tool for buildings to reduce their impact on the land while at the same time combat global climate change.

How did the idea of green building evolve and how has the movement grown over the years? If you could briefly talk about the way it has been aligned with the CDM of the Kyoto Protocol, namely earning of carbon credits?
The concept of green building has been around for years, but we realized that there was not a common definition for it. That’s where the LEED rating system came into the picture. USGBC was founded in 1993 to bring together professionals from every sector in the industry and to create a common definition for green. USGBC has grown by leaps and bounds since it launched the first version of LEED for new constructions in 2000. More than 11,000 buildings nationwide have registered with LEED, and nearly 1,400 have been certified as green. That number translates to about 7% of the commercial construction market, and with the growth we have been seeing; we expect the number to grow closer to 10% by mid 2008.

In addition to that, 500 homes were certified during the two-year LEED for homes pilot, which ended in January 2008 when the LEED for homes rating system officially launched. There are more than 11,400 homes that have registered for LEED for homes. Carbon reduction has always been a priority of the rating system, and in November 2006, USGBC unveiled its own climate commitment, requiring that all LEED projects reduce CO2 emissions by 50%. USGBC also offers certification rebates for all building that achieve a platinum LEED rating.

Talking about USGBC, can you briefly talk about the evolution of the LEED certification process and how it came into play?
USGBC has actively solicited feedback from architects, designers, and contractors who use LEED, and increasingly developers, financial institutions, and corporations have also allowed us to evolve the LEED system, making it as flexible and adaptive as possible but still retaining its technical rigor and its practicality.

The rating system undergoes a process of continuous improvement parallel with USGBC’s efforts of continuing to incorporate recent advances in science and technology. In 2009, we shall launch our LEED v3 that includes a continuous improvement process of LEED to create a more flexible and adaptive program, and will allow USGBC to respond seamlessly to the market’s evolving needs. Particular focus areas will include technical and scientific innovations that will improve building performance; the applicability of LEED to the marketplace, in order to speed market transformation. And the customer experience, to ensure that LEED is an effective tool for the people and the organizations using it.

There is a special certification in India known as LEED India; in what ways is it different from the global LEED certification? What are the local factors that have been incorporated in LEED India?
The Indian GBC has licensed LEED from the USGBC and has adapted the LEED for new construction rating system and the LEED for core and shell rating system for India. Some specific changes have been to site local and national standards when available such as the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun (for endangered species) standard reference in sustainable sites credit 1, and to add credits such as the credit for water efficient in air-conditioning systems for water efficiency credit 2.

USGBC has partnered with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for the formation of IGBC (Indian Green Building Council), are you looking at partnering with other organizations in India?
We actually didn’t partner with CII to start the Indian GBC. This movement began within India and once the founding group was formed they worked with the World GBC. The World GBC works to help groups in other countries form green building councils. We work closely with the Indian GBC and other GBCs to share best practices and to learn from each other.

Finally, since you are one of the leading and most recognized voices in the green building movement, how do you see the movement turning out in the next few years? What according to you would be the challenges and do you think we are equipped to face them?
At Greenbuild 2006, our annual conference and showcase for the latest green building products and technologies, I announced our ambitious goals for the industry: By 2010, there will be 100,000 LEED certified commercial buildings and 1 mn certified homes. By 2020, there will be 1 mn LEED certified commercial buildings and 10 mn certified homes.

I think the biggest obstacle that has come our way is education; in addition to pushing market leaders forward, we also have to raise the rest of the market up. There are still misconceptions about green building, which according to me is understandable.  It’s a new way of thinking and a new way of doing things, and change is scary to many people. But the alternativesitting back and doing everything the way we’ve always done it, for the sake of feeling safe is not an option.  USGBC’s primary role is to educate and inform the public about the social, economic, and environmental benefits of green building, and to provide the industry with the knowledge and tools it needs to realize these benefits.  In addition to LEED, we offer dozens of workshops, online courses, and reference guides.

(Shashwat DC. Published in Dataquest Magazine)