Green Computing and Business

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Table of Contents

Awareness of employee about green computing
Virtualization
Recycling
Power Management
Cloud Computing
Aligning IT strategies and business strategies
References

Awareness of employee about green computing

Progressive corporate development of organizations requires them to implement change management practices. This involves the implementation of organizational innovations that are reflected on business process and product development. Organizational change management is a challenging process due to opposition by members of the organization.

Consequently, change management should be handled with care to minimize resistance and ensure efficiency. One of the ways to introduce green computing in an organization is through strength of policy. This method uses a top to bottom approach, whereby organizational leaders act as the catalysts of change.

This approach requires the management team to grasp the policies and implement the changes decisively, in order to ensure unification of the organization. While this method can be used for organizations with strong discipline, other organizations require the use of strength of policy by example. This involves the moderate introduction of green computing strategies as pilot methods.

This way, the personnel can recognize the benefits of change and be encouraged to emulate them. Another strategy used by organization involves hiring computer consultants and practitioners to increase the awareness of personnel.

Computer consultants are effective in the dissemination of information about green computing since their knowhow makes them convincing. Consultants help to educate people who are considered zero-knowledge in order to fully maximize their knowledge on ways to save computing resources (Warren, 2002).

The implementation of green computing strategies begins with company leaders. The management should demonstrate the practice that they want to be implemented within the organization so that the subordinates can understand and enact willingly.

Employees need to be informed about the importance of green computing in reducing the scarcity of computing resources, and ensuring optimum utilization and efficient disposal of company resources. Company leaders are required to guard their employees in proper usage of company resources by properly educating them on the importance of green computing.

The human resource department plays a vital role in ensuring good employee behavior. The human resources work hand in hand with leaders in educating and reminding people to conserve energy and reduce waste. This is achieved through office meetings that educate employees on efficient paperwork with minimal waste, as well as, the use of online communication instead of papers.

They can also put scratch paper and recycling bins in photocopy rooms. The company can organize seminars on green computing and encourage employees to remind each other to turn off their computers. In addition, employees can work from home and use telecommuting when they need to communicate with the office. They can also call or email the office when they need something (Hsu & Feng, 2005).

Virtualization

Virtualization is one of the most vital technologies in green computing since it allows organizations to save both hardware and software resources by developing a similar environment, like a peripheral device, using the available resources (Feng, 2007). IT virtualization schemes allow end-users to maximize on hardware and software for multiple purposes.

End-users can effectively reduce their hardware and software operating costs by implementing virtual computing machines. They also reduce the energy requirements for an organization, which transforms the savings into net corporate income.

Virtualization involves the use of multiple virtual machines on one physical environment as opposed to the construction of redundant data structures with multi-tiered power and cooling requirements.

This is beneficial for organizations since it allows them to operate on a single powerful data center that runs numerous virtual machines (Ge, 2007). As a result, virtualization enhances the stability of IT environments while maintaining the competitiveness and viability of business organizations (Freeh, 2005).

Recycling

Green computing in organizations is also manifested in recycling materials. This occurs when computer systems that are no longer in use for the processes that they were used for initially find new uses. Organizations recycle materials by re-purposing them or donating them to other institutions.

Organizations have a responsibility of using computing resources that minimize the use of environmentally harmful materials, optimize energy efficiency during the operation of the system, and enhance recyclability or biodegradability of the obsolete products and related wastes (Simpson, 2007).

These operations require the organization to strike a balance between upholding the interests of stakeholders and optimizing shareholder benefits. The business has a responsibility to ensure that its operations portray eco-responsibility by applying the principle of eliminating, reducing, reusing and recycling. In addition to ensuring business eco-performance, the principles also minimize IT expenditure and offer efficient general operations.

Some of the main trash products that occupy a majority of landfill space are electronics and computer pasts (European Union, 2007). The disposal of these products leads to the emission of harmful substances such as mercury and zinc to the environment (Brasen, 2008).

Green computing, through application of the four principles, helps to reduce the threat posed by disposal. Organizations also benefit from these principles. They save on costs incurred in heavy power bills due to e-waste crisis, and other economic aspects (OMarah & Karofsky, 2006).

Power Management

The third strategy used in green computing is power management. This strategy ensures long life of organizational physical devices though effective and efficient management of the resources (Grove, 2008). Organizations need to teach their people about the simple processes used in power management.

Employees should also be informed that power management does not involve their compromise on quality, but instead, on the efficient use of resources (Davies, 2007). The first step in educating employees about power management is informing them about the power management features in their computers.

These features reduce energy consumption, decrease cooling costs, reduce noise levels and enhance the battery life of laptops and notebooks. These benefits also have a positive impact on the environment.

Some of the strategies used include monitor sleep; hard disk sleep; and system stand by, which vary depending on the operating system in use. Other power management strategies involve the use of computer peripherals such as network connections, data servers, printers, and data storage devices (Greenberg, Mills, & Tschudi, 2006).

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is also a green computing strategy that involves the delivery of applications, infrastructure, and services on demand over a network. Organizations can use private clouds to share resources in a private organizational network, or public clouds where they access resources though the internet. Two or more organizations can also share resources using community clouds (Ohara, 2007).

Cloud computing prevents organizations from acquiring redundant and inefficient infrastructure, which results in a huge wastage of hardware, power and management resources (Climate Savers White Paper, 2007). Clouds enhance the capital efficiency of organizations by avoiding tedious procurement processes and equipment-obsolescence traps (Norman & McDonald, 2003).

Cloud computing also increases the efficiency of organizations in acquiring and deploying new IT platforms, services and applications in a manner that is sustainable and ideal for the environment. Organizations that switch to cloud based services not only provide low cost operations but also enhance innovation within their operations in terms of improving communication both internally and externally (Samson, 2007).

Aligning IT strategies and business strategies

The use of information technology in organizations has been profound. Advances in information technology have resulted in improved communication techniques. This has, in turn, created a global village where businesses can virtually interact with each other over great distances across the globe (Feblowwitz, Knickle, Whalen, & Hand, 2008).

Advancements in IT have also led to other forms of interaction such as banking, business transactions and provision of services. Green computing and networking has provided businesses with fast and flexible means to transfer vital information, which improves business processes. However, information technology alone is not enough to improve business performance (Erlanger, 2007).

Organizations need to align their objectives with the available resources, which include people, machines and procedures used to develop the artifacts. This is achieved by creating a system outlining how they will be used. Each member of the organization should comprehend their roles and responsibilities in terms of organization objectives and information technology organization.

Information technology organization involves a collaboration process among organization departments in decision making to come up with an effective work system (Samson, Sun, Employees Find Big Savings for Open Work Telecommuting Program, 2007). It is the responsibility of the organization to ensure that the information technology organization is regularly updated as the organizations evolves and grows.

This makes it easier to implement various organizational processes. It also ensures timely sharing of information and enhances coordination between layers and elements of the organization (Samson, Telepresence Breaks Down Communication Barriers, 2007).

References

Brasen, S. (2008). The Business Case for Green IT. Enterprise Management Associates.

Climate Savers White Paper. (2007). Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

Davies, J. (2007). A Five Step Program for Sustainability. AMR Research.

Erlanger, L. (2007). Reap the Rewards of Hardware Recycling. InfoWorld.

European Union. (2007). Enforcement of the Restriction of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations(RoHS). UK National Weights and Measures Laboratory.

Feblowwitz, J., Knickle, K., Whalen, M., & Hand, L. (2008). IT For Green A Call to Action for the CIO. Energy Inisghts.

Feng, W. (2007). Green Supercomputing in a Desktop Box. Proc. 21st IEEE Intl Parallel and Distributed Processing, 1-8.

Freeh, V. (2005). Using Multiple Energy Gears in MPI Programs on a Power-Scalable Cluster. Proc. 10th ACM Symp. Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming, 164-173.

Ge, R. (2007). CPU MISER: A Performance-Directed, Run-Time System for Power-Aware Clusters. Proc. 36th Intl Conf. Parallel Processing (ICPP 07), IEEE CS, 18.

Greenberg, S., Mills, E., & Tschudi, B. (2006). Best Practices for Data Centers: Lessons Learned from Benchmarking 22 Data Centers. Berkeley CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Grove, D. (2008). Understanding Your Vendors Supply Chain Is Key to Green IT Strategy. GreenerComputing.

Hsu, C., & Feng, W. (2005). A Power-Aware Run-Time System for High-Performance Computing. Proc. ACM/IEEE SC2005 Conf. High Performance Networking and Computing, IEEE CS, 1.

Norman, W., & McDonald, C. (2003). Getting to the Bottom of the Triple Bottom Line. Business Ethics Quarterly.

OMarah, K., & Karofsky, E. (2006). A Case Study of Hewlett Packards Social and Environmental Responsibility Strategies in Supply Chain. AMR Research.

Ohara, D. (2007). Build a Green Data Center. TechNet Magazine.

Samson, T. (2007). Give Telecommuting the Green Light. InfoWorld.

Samson, T. (2007). Sun, Employees Find Big Savings for Open Work Telecommuting Program. InfoWorld.

Samson, T. (2007). Telepresence Breaks Down Communication Barriers. InfoWorld.

Simpson, T. (2007). Survey the Green-Tech Landscape. InfoWorld.

Warren, M. (2002). High-Density Computing: A 240-Processor Beowulf in One Cubic Meter. Proc. IEEE/ACM SC2002 Conf., 61-72.

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