Going green

"Green computing" seems to be the up and coming thing for suppliers offering virtualization software as well as management software for virtualized environments.

It’s a topic that has come up over and over again in my discussions with suppliers recently.

What is “green computing” you ask?

It appears that there are many related, but different, definitions floating around the Internet. Most of them focus on a set of processes and approaches designed to make datacenters more efficient.

This means reducing the power and cooling required. I have read that the daily power consumption of a typical datacenter is equivalent to the monthly power consumption of thousands of homes. How many homes mentioned typically depends upon the size of the data center, the number of systems in the data center and how large of a check the supplier is hoping your organization is going to write for their product.

So what did I learn and what makes me want to share it? The big point is there is much, much more to the topic than cutting the energy consumption of the data centre, which is the obvious topic that we all mostly hear about.

Green computing is the environmentally responsible use of computers and related resources.

Such practices include the implementation of energy-efficient central processing units (CPU's), servers's and peripheral's as well as reduced resource consumption and proper disposal of electronic waste (e-waste).

Now the question is how can we do that, or How should we go for it?

Here are some steps that can be taken:

• Power-down the CPU and all peripherals during extended periods of inactivity.
• Try to do computer-related tasks during contiguous, intensive blocks of time, leaving hardware off at other times.
• Power-up and power-down energy-intensive peripherals such as laser's according to need.
• Use liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors rather than cathode-ray-tube (CRT) monitors.
• Use notebook computers rather than desktop computers whenever possible.
• Use the power-management features to turn off hard drives's and displays after several minutes of inactivity.
• Minimize the use of paper and properly recycle waste paper.
• Dispose of e-waste according to federal, state and local regulations.
• Employ alternative energy sources for computing workstation's, servers, networks and data centers.