Years ago, before green described more than a Muppets frog or an envious feeling, I began following high-tech in the U.S., and along with most others I considered it a “clean” industry without major impact on air pollution and the surrounding environment.

What wasn’t really discussed or widely known — except perhaps among those who ran large glass-house data centers — was the huge amount of energy required to operate and to cool these centers, as well as the carbon emissions they produced.

Fast-forward to 2011 when we can no longer claim that IT is environmentally neutral — that is, unless or until businesses take steps immediately to offset the impact of our massive, global IT industry on air, water and natural resource consumption.

Fortunately, many enterprises are not only aware of the problems, they are taking action. And for those that need more nudging, many governments, as in Europe, have stiff regulations to persuade public and private organizations that they must reduce energy consumption as well as carbon emissions or face financial penalties.

To my mind, whether motives are purely about social responsibility (which I hope is an important factor) or whether they are financial and business-driven is less important than the actions taking place to make IT sustainability a rising priority, not just a nice afterthought. At the very least there needs to be a corporate policy with specific goals and a short-term timetable to reach them. And IT data centers must be a significant part of any initial remediation efforts.

Smart Enterprise Exchange recently discussed the topic of sustainability with experts at two global companies: Siemens IT Solutions and Services, in the U.K., and CA Technologies based in the U.S. It was encouraging to hear that each is “walking the talk” and addressing concerns as an IT user as well as a solutions provider to external customers. Part 1 of the audiocast is now available, and I've also highlighted here some comments from the full discussion with these panelists who make it seem very easy to be green:

• Clark MacFarlane, Siemens IT Solutions and Services’ Managing Director, U.K., and CEO for North West Europe, framed the situation well when he said that IT sustainability should be one essential part of a “larger, organizational drive.” In the U.K., public and private sectors must “live the principle” and meet “demanding targets set to reduce carbon and energy efficiency usage. “Under current U.K. environmental legislation, it isn’t an option; it’s an obligation,” he said. Siemens, therefore, has a responsibility to the environment as well as to its customers and employees to conserve energy.
  
  
• Specifically, Steven Barker, Siemens IT Solutions and Services’ Head of Government Affairs, U.K., said hard ROI will be realized when you are compliant with legislation. “Everyone understands that there are reputational risks if you don’t comply.” More positively, “any sustainability activity can have a payback and it should be embedded in a business case so there is no conflict between business and sustainability objectives.” The challenge, he said, is to get clarity, and prioritize all of the efforts under way.
  
  
• MacFarlane said Siemens had set targets to reduce its CO2 impact and water efficiency by 20 percent – and between 2006 and 2009, CO2 emissions had improved by 17 percent and water usage by 29 percent. In addition, some 62 percent of its waste was now being recycled. Based on its own achievement of reducing the number of data centers – down from 100 to 30 in Germany, for example – the company helps customers with data center virtualization and consolidation, lean processes and even travel costs by encouraging more videoconferencing and public transportation.
  
  
• CA Technologies also practices what it preaches to customers, according to Chief Sustainability Officer Cynthia Curtis. “We use much of our own technology to monitor and improve energy consumption,” she said. The tough economy makes it even more critical to invest and prioritize in green efforts that “drive bottom-line savings.” In addition to virtualization, the cloud is enabling better productivity and cost savings for CA and its customers. Similarly, better metering of data centers can cut down on air conditioning to improve the environment as well as the bottom line.
  
  
• Like Siemens, CA Technologies has designed buildings and data centers to comply with rigorous environmental standards. Sanket Atal, Senior Vice President of the CA Technologies India Technology Center in Hyderabad, noted that his campus considered “eco-friendliness since day one.” It recycles waste water, composts food and other materials, and used energy-efficient materials for its design. As a result, the site has earned LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] certification and a gold award for green design.

Are these companies unusual in their commitment to the environment? I’d like to hear more from our members before I can feel confident that the IT industry — particularly in the U.S., where regulations are lax — is really serious about improving the environment and reversing global warming trends. Some recent research is not encouraging. What is your IT department doing to become greener? Are you measuring tangible results? Please share your practices with others on the Exchange.

July 2010

Although it is definitely possible to see results from smaller, incremental projects, bigger certainly looks better when it comes to most IT innovation. It seems to me that what some CIOs view as “practical” innovation, however, might be far out of reach for the majority of businesses today. As an example, in a wide-ranging conversation about innovation and other topics, two leading CIOs each discussed how they have built their own private cloud networks.

To me, these CIOs clearly represent the leading edge of IT, not the mainstream. John Halamka, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, is well-known as an intrepid early adopter of emerging technologies and an e-healthcare industry leader, as his blog often explains. Speaking with Smart Enterprise Exchange recently for an upcoming podcast about Practical Innovation, Halamka said that the size of his operations has allowed him to host e-health record services for several smaller hospitals.

“If there were a cloud offering available with the security and privacy I need, I’d use it,” he said, “but [my IT operation is] big enough to provide e-health record services for smaller users from our cloud,” he said. Halamka has 5,000 CPUs and “petabytes of storage” available “at low cost for thousands of users in the Harvard community.”

Another innovation podcast panelist, Richard Plane, who was until very recently the VP and CIO at Aviat Networks, formerly Harris Stratex Networks, has also built a private cloud for use by the company. Plane said he was looking for a public cloud provider “to seamlessly manage” the private cloud and public offerings. Using only a public network might lower costs, he said, but since most public providers still need to do more work on security, Plane is sticking with the private option for now. He recently joined Harris' Cyber Integrated Solutions as head of solutions development and delivery.

Long term, both CIOs expect to show financial savings as well as productivity improvements and better services with their cloud options. In fact, Halamka said that in a hosted private cloud environment, he can cut about 50 percent of the support costs of solution delivery. “Demand for services far exceeds budget growth. We have to cut costs with cloud and outsourcing” options, he said. Moreover, their cloud efforts represent just one innovation among many that these two CIOs' businesses are pursuing.

Tom Kendra, Executive Vice President for CA Technologies’ Enterprise Products and Solutions business line, agreed that cloud models give CIOs more choices for delivering services to internal and external customers. CIOs are now “managing a supply chain of options — all driven by technology innovation,” he said.

All CIOs may have more options with cloud technology, but as with other emerging technology efforts, the playing field is not level; bigger businesses have far more choices — and therefore, advantages — than others.

The full podcast includes discussion about mobile devices, virtualization and alternate IT delivery models as well as Practical Innovation. It will be posted on Smart Enterprise Exchange very soon.

Meanwhile, I invite you to share your experiences about funding IT innovation efforts such as cloud computing. Will you develop your own private clouds — or will you be among those who use the services of others?

And if you are concerned about cloud security, this month we also feature a Q&A with Nils Puhlmann, co-founder of the Cloud Security Alliance, who (surprisingly?), says that many security concerns are overstated. You can read the interview here.

Paula Klein
Editor and Community Manager
Smart Enterprise Exchange