Gartner call on Green issues (20-Jul-07)
From Lauraibm
Contents |
Electrical Capacity of Datacentres
- Q. Do we have evidence that we are in danger of running out of capacity?
- A. In terms of quantitative data, No. But anecdotally, Gartner has lots of supporting evidence. SunGard reported that power-related disruptions increased from 7% in 2005 to 26% in 2006. (See Business disruption from power failures up 350% (30-Apr-07).)
In high-density urban areas such as Canary Wharf, this is a common problem. And it could get worse with the advent of blades.
Server consolidation should reduce the total power needed, so it is good from a green viewpoint. But it is bad if you consolidate onto an old datacentre. There may be an argument for consolidating work onto a mainframe, rather than a big Intel server.
But there is no indication that environmental factors are influencing customers' IT architecture decisions.
Environmental priorities by Industry
- Sectors e.g. Retail, Financial Services and Telecommunications have the key opportunities and are leading the way in understanding Green Issues.
- The Public sector, on the other hand, are pushing everything down the supply chain and are not actually doing anything material themselves.
- The IT market are not connecting their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with the implications implied. They need to know what their CSR says and act in co-ordination with this.
The Issue of Climate Change
It is true that companies seem to be jumping on the bandwagon with regards to Green Issues. However, the issue of climate change means the Green Issue is not just a fashion or fad, but will continue to gain increasing attention.
The broader issue of sustainability has a more questionable future, but it is likely that this too will continue to gain attention.
Status on Green Issues
- Germany is ahead of the UK in terms of their knowledge on, and actions regarding electronic waste and solar panels, etc.
- The UK on the other hand is ahead of Germany in terms of being aware of the Climate Change issues.
- The US & European Perspectives on Green Issues are very different.
The US has a more divisive approach, hence it is harder to characterise what they are doing with regards to green issues. The consequence of this is that we should not be looking to the US for guidance on what to do as we are likely to hear conflicting issues and this poses the danger of only latching on to aspects we want to hear and discarding the other aspects.
The European perspective is non-divisive, as a result most progress on Green Issues comes from Europe.
ICT's Impact on the Environment
The impact of ICT on the environment can be broken down into 3 orders:
- 1. Impact from creation of Products e.g. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions, Electronic Waste, Hazardous Waste and Un-renewable Resources. These aspects all have a negative impact upon the environment.
- 2. Application of ICT ICT can be used as a travel substitute, engine management systems and supply chain management, etc. These aspects all have a positive impact upon the environment, and are concerned with increasing the material and energy efficiency of production.
- 3. Structural Impacts e.g. the macroeconomic and socioeconomic aspects of ICT. For example, increasing the use of ICT can decrease the travel density of the economy and decrease the number of miles travelled.
Media Coverage
It is important to remember that media coverage is way ahead of what most companies are doing. The same announcement will often be used in a number of different ways to make it sound like the company are doing more than they actually are.
The media can indeed be used as a good indicator of what is and can be done, but it is imperative to not take the media coverage too seriously.
