Lean and green

When people think of global warming and environmental damage caused by inefficient power consumption, computing may not instantly spring to mind as a culprit. The common public perception is that computing is a relatively ?clean? industry; one that uses comparatively little power to perform astounding feats.

In truth, the corporate data center is a behemoth power consumer and a substantial contributor to global warming. For every dollar spent of hardware in a data center, another 50 cents is spent on the energy to power the system.

Energy expenditures and requirements have actually doubled in the past five years. Industrial use is approximately one third of energy consumed in the U.S. At the present rate, infrastructure and energy costs will exceed total IT costs by 2014.

With evidence of the damage cause by server sprawl now incontrovertible, enterprises are going to have to deal with the looming data center environmental crisis, sooner than later in effort to establish eco-friendly technology environments.

Data centers are an integral part of an organization, and a new model, one that acknowledges environmental and cost pressures is a necessity. The benefits of going LEAN & GREEN are both environmental and financial, as efficiency gains reflect across power and operational costs, revenue and future capital investment needs.

Using less equipment to do more goes to the heart of being LEAN & GREEN. Consolidation and virtualizing storage and using efficient computing practices and power-saving tactics are the route to achieving environmental efficiency.

The LEAN & GREEN approach can pay its way in lowered power costs, even as it benefits the environment. Organizations need to look for storage vendors that are forward-rending, committed to a ?lean and green? future, and that can provide systems that accomplish the task.