CTO Blog
I found myself on a Panel discussing ‘green computing’; actually it was part of the Gartner Data Centre event in London as opposed to being a particular decision by me to get involved in Green Computing. I guess that’s a pretty recognisable position for many of us, we know it’s something we should be taking more notice of, but lack the time to get involved enough.
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. Let’s start with software;
There are several cars on the market that when you stop in traffic for a period automatically stop the engine, and restart the engine when you touch the accelerator ready to move off again. I have not personally ever seen any software that is at this level for the office PC, yes I know it can and will hibernate, but I am willing to bet that you don’t do this when you get up to get a coffee, or even go to a meeting. It’s not set up to be a fast restart when you touch the keypad so it’s personally time consuming and we don’t do it.
Most of us will comment happily on the ‘death of distance’ and ‘the earth is flat’ but this has no part in the location of a data centre to an area where the production of power is local and green. Well, maybe some are, and that explains why Microsoft, Google and others are building their enormous data centres in Oregon where there is abundant, and cheap, water generated electricity.
The word ‘cheap’ just came up there, and this is generally an acceptable business reason for doing something, so will the shift to MIPs as a service, or even Software as a Service, be able to take advantage of these locations? The answer when examined on the basis of where some of these new data centres are seems to be yes.
And if you use Software as a Service could the local PC behave differently from running its own software in full? Obviously it could, and maybe would, if it was written to do so, but would Enterprises accept these changes? A data centre far away dependant on global communications, software provisioned and supported differently, all seem too big a jump from current practice and throw up some difficult questions on legislation on owning and using data etc.
As the man leading the panel said, ‘there are some inconvenient facts’ that prevent the topic being really explored fully and in detail so its best to pick a quick win like the use of power in the data centre. I found it very interesting, and thought-provoking, when I got to hear the whole topic being addressed rather than just the parts I had previously heard. In my case, made me think it was worth doing some further research on the topic.
About the author
Capgemini Global Chief Technology Officer, Andy is a member of the Capgemini Group management board and advises on all aspects of technology-driven market changes, together with being a member of the Policy Board for the British Computer Society. Andy is the author of many white papers, and the co-author three books that have charted the current changes in technology and its use by business starting in 2006 with ‘Mashup Corporations’ detailing how enterprises could make use of Web 2.0 to develop new go to market propositions. This was followed in May 2008 by Mesh Collaboration focussing on the impact of Web 2.0 on the enterprise front office and its working techniques, then in 2010 “Enterprise Cloud Computing: A Strategy Guide for Business and Technology leaders” co-authored with well-known academic Peter Fingar and one of the leading authorities on business process, John Pyke. The book describes the wider business implications of Cloud Computing with the promise of on-demand business innovation. It looks at how businesses trade differently on the web using mash-ups but also the challenges in managing more frequent change through social tools, and what happens when cloud comes into play in fully fledged operations. Andy was voted one of the top 25 most influential CTOs in the world in 2009 by InfoWorld and is grateful to readers of Computing Weekly who voted the Capgemini CTOblog the best Blog for Business Managers and CIOs each year for the last three years.
I think there at least two important points brought out in this post …
The first of which being how we seem to be finding aspects of Green IT appearing on our agendas and solution builds without really realising it … Why is this? I believe it is simply because it is part of the genetic make-up of an ‘optimal solution’, it’s common sense if you like, and not just for IT. There is a tendency for our focus to be drawn to the big picture – to think we must “boil the ocean” (to use a phrase I have grown to hate!). That is absolutely not to say it is anything less than critical for us to address the bigger issues, to face the “inconvenient facts” and to conduct the research (and, more importantly, continue the development) wherever we can. However, we do need to take advantage of any opportunity to apply cultural shift and adopt alternative approaches. Many of these are not new, indeed they are often well proven, but it is not general in the CxO nature (nor, by inheritance, that of their trusted advisors) to risk a deviation for the norm without good reason. We should not underestimate the weight of cultural or behavioural drivers on the decision making process.
Let’s look at a couple of prime examples. In the data centre we have been seeing solutions emerge to increase utilisation more and more over recent decades, so not new nor unproven. More recently we are seeing multi-core, multi-thread and virtualisation technologies really take root. In effect this is Green IT – low utilisation means wasted CPU, means wasted power and cooling as well as wasted physical hardware.
The second example coicides with the second point brought out in this post. As an industry we need to re-think our approach to desktop delivery. There is quite a large gap between the traditional sprawl of desktop PCs and the software-as-a-service approach. It is in this gap that we can address the potential issues Andy highlights above re-data centre distances and data ownership/management. For example, a thin client approach (as available from Sun and HP, among others) enables us to drastically reduce desktop power, management and resource requirements while increasing security and centralising data management (within the enterprise), as well as user mobility.
Solutions exist to adopt a greener approach and to quote the vendors on this, we should do so not simply because its green (although there will no doubt be legislation appearing in the future to make this more appealing, just as is happening in the motor industry for example) but because it makes business sense.
I do not believe the emergence of Green IT as a topic will cause a revolution in the industry, but I do believe it gives us the opportunity to re-examine our culture, our approaches and to shake off some of the cobwebs. I think we will still struggle with cultural barriers, data centre virtualisation and thin client desktops being prime examples, but it does hopefuly present an opportunity to bring/return these concepts to the table.
AoC Gold
Much of the web pages that you will learn of dealing with this matter are very knowledgeable, while many are not.