Island Joe Group

In our last green IT post we discussed how precious resources, such as gold, silver, or copper, can be extracted from electronics.  This process of extracting metals and other usable materials from things such as discarded cell phones or old hard drives, is sometimes referred to as urban mining.  It is not only environmentally friendly, but also practical.  This month, instead of looking at reusing and recycling electronic material, we would like to focus on another element of resource conservation-reducing the total use of resources.

There are a number of ways a business can reduce its demand on environmental resources.  Printing less, switching to efficient lighting products and practices, and telecommuting are all very useful strategies.   However, some requirements, such as the need for new servers or desktops, are simply unavoidable.  Many businesses are finding that virtualization is actually a more economical–as well as environmentally friendly–solution.

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is the process of using software to simulate a computer or a server. The virtual computer or server is hosted on an actual server, which is often housed and monitored in a highly secure and energy efficient data center.   This process has numerous benefits for managing the workplace environment as well as minimizing the effect your business has on the environment.

Reduce Upfront Expenses

Hardware consolidation and the consequent cost savings are one of the main reasons a business considers virtualization. Because a number of virtual servers and computers can be housed on a single server, hardware costs alone will see noticeable decreases. This provides immediate benefits in the workplace, where capital typically spent on hardware can be significantly reduced.

Reduce Staff time

Virtual servers also help save money by freeing up money spent on server design, installation, and maintenance to be spent on other IT projects that will help your business grow. By reducing the number of physical servers that staff or a contractor has to monitor and maintain, a business can save money. The time it takes to stand up a new server also goes from days or weeks to on demand, thus reducing project management costs and enabling your business to execute projects much more quickly.

Environmental

Because virtualization allows a company to operate with fewer physical servers, electricity demand is decreased. Along with conserving electricity, fewer servers and workstations leads to a reduction in energy demand throughout the supply chain. It also helps to consolidate the process of determining the environmental effects of a new purchase. Instead of considering the environmental effects and energy costs each time a business must make a new IT equipment purchase, a business can quickly increase server or workstation capacity using a single or a few data centers which have been previously studied and compared against other data centers. Presumably, these would be the data centers that place great importance on energy efficiency along with quality and security.

As you can see, replacing physical servers or computers with virtual servers saves businesses money on hardware,  increased efficiency resulting from a reallocation of money and time away from IT management, and energy expense.  This consolidation reduces the total amount of resources consumed as well. With multiple servers or workstations being housed on a single server, it is easy to see how quickly a business could reduce its total demand for computer related resources.

Businesses large and small are seeing the variety of benefits derived from hardware consolidation and it is a vital part of the green IT movement.   Businesses who have not already taken advantage of this practice which combines capital and time savings with reduced environmental harms, should take a serious look at their IT management plans and consider adding virtualization to the list.