When one talks of the green movement, especially green IT, people are befuddled. While it may not need a high IQ to derive that green IT is about being sensitive toward nature and good environmental practices, people also tend to associate it with high costs and social responsibility. And this mysticism has been the bane of green IT.

For far too long, green has often been portrayed as a privilege of the hoi polloi, something the smaller and medium companies can leave for a later day. Thus, most of the CEOs, though conscious about the need to be clean and green, shy away from it thinking it would be costly and tedious. This misconception is the very purpose behind Dataquests Green Strategy 2008 event.

The tricity event, in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, intends to demystify green, and do so in a very pragmatic manner. The emphasis is on business case rather than hazy concepts like social and moral obligations. Green Strategy is designed to be a high-powered discussion between industry people and the stakeholders on what can be done to curtail costs and be productive in an eco-friendly way. CIOs from different industry verticals from mammoth banks to small ancillary firms will come on a common platform and share their views and learnings on the subject.

Yes, it is indeed possible to be profitably green, if it is still hard for you to swallow, consider the following:

Every year $5 bn is spent on powering computers in Asia, 66% of which is for supporting systems in idle mode

Gartner predicts that by 2010, eco-friendly issues will take a spot among the top five IT management concerns of over 50% government agencies in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Australia.

Power cost is a huge component for every company, be it manufacturing, banking or even IT services. Companies that have large data centers or big servers farm are under stress to reduce the power uptake to stay productive. Not only that, the modern architecture is also to be blamed for the rise in the power bill. The impressive glass behemoth structures that line the streets of Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad and others are big guzzlers of energy, as they tend to trap the heat inside, companies have to employ heavy air-conditioning to keep offices at a comfortable temperature, resulting in more spending.

In short, there are many inefficiencies that a company can cut down upon. Much of this comes from the top, yet a lot of it can be initiated in the middle and senior management itself. Take, for instance, the habit of switching off the desktops while leaving for home in the evening. It is merely a case of sensitizing employees. There are so many small things that go a long way in terms of conservation of resources.

Some very interesting suggestions were thrown at the Mumbai event. For instance, Alok Kumar, VP, IT, Reliance Industries, spoke about how Reliance was looking at saving costs by means of encouraging employees to work from home. We are setting up VPN connections between the employee and the company and they need not commute to office at all. This not only raises the productivity and curtails the cost, but also look at the savings in terms of environment. So much petrol and other resources are saved, he said. Similarly, KK Raman, CTO, BPL Mobile, spoke about how VoIP could be effectively used to cut back on managers physically traveling to different places for one-on-one meetings. Anil Jhala, CFO, Idea Cellular, spoke of how the Aditya Birla Group was taking active interest in solar energy.

The big surprise of the Green Strategy 2008 event has been the interest that it has generatednot the fact that it generated interest but the amount of interest has really been quite astounding. Every city sports a house full sign much like a Bollywood blockbuster. This proves that Indian companies are curious and keen about going green.

According to a study done by Springboard Research, cost savings will drive green IT investments, and vendors must step up to the plate on raising awareness. The report also stated that large enterprises in Asia comprise the largest consumers of electricity used for computing at 37%, followed by consumer IT users at 34%, and the small/medium enterprise (SME) and small office/home office (SOHO) segment at 29%.

"Computing devices have a significantly large and unrecognized carbon footprint. For example, an average-sized server has the same carbon footprint as a mid-sized sports utility vehicle getting 15 miles-to-the-gallon," said Bob Hayward, research VP, Springboard Research in a press release. "As companies become more accurate in determining what percentage of energy costs are allocated to the IT department, you will see cost savings as the key driver of Green IT investments," he added.

IT vendors are also becoming conscious and are increasing their efforts in the green IT space. The largest amount of spending by IT vendors is focused on increasing the energy efficiency of their products (40% of spending). This is closely followed by efforts on recycling and disposal (30% of spending) and manufacturing in a more environmentally friendly way (25% of spending), the report further stated.

In conclusion, going green is not an altruistic proposition. It is a profitable business case. Companies can work out the RoI and see for themselves the benefits that can be derived. And, the Dataquest Green Strategy event is a start in that regard; it is not about finding answers, but raising questions.

Shashwat DC
shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in

Page(s)   1