DCC September Select Series - Green Tech Special

VOL 02 | ISSUE 21SEPTEMBER 2010 | RS. 50A 9.9 MEDIA PUBLICATION

S E L E C T S E R I E S

SALESFRIENDLY?

SALESFRIENDLY?

GREEN TECHNOLOGIES

Does the ‘green’ or ‘environment friendly’ tag on IT products help channel partners in sales?

Read on to find out...

Handy tips on how to green the enterprise PAGE 24

Going GreenThe challenges and benefits of adopting green PAGE 22

Multiple SidesHow green tech can lower opex as well as capex PAGE 16

Green Returns

Cover_September_2010.indd 1 9/24/2010 8:57:34 PM

editorial

DIGIT CHANNEL CONNECT 1 SEPTEMBER 2010

Green is more about the habit

of optimally consuming things and not throwing them away at the first instance

There is an abundance of literature on what constitutes green technology and how users can adopt cleaner, greener alternatives to

power-guzzling products. So, for a change I will not talk about ‘green technologies’ here – even if this special issue is titled as such.

On the contrary, I’m going to talk about things that may not sit well with how the entire ecosystem of industry and consumers operates in a fast-globalising – but hot and crowded – world.

In the current scheme of things, manufacturers-sellers talk about faster times to market, constant prod-uct upgrades and new niches or segments. Consumers, armed with all the new wealth being generated, are ‘going shopping’ with a vengeance. The result: an ongoing, accelerating cycle of ‘buy more, sell more, buy some more, and throw away a lot’.

I remember growing up as a middle-class child in pre-liberalised India. There wasn’t much to buy in the first place. We didn’t have large disposable incomes. And we were happy with what we could get, use and, more importantly, reuse. Books and clothes were handed down from older children to the younger ones. Fridges, TVs and other contraptions used to last generations. And there were few unnecessary gewgaws around.

Today people buy ‘all kinds of stuff ’. In all kinds of places. At all kinds of prices. For all kinds of purposes. And quite often, for no purpose at all.

And what happens to the ‘stuff ’? It’s hardly used.

Green as a Habit

[email protected]

Write to the EditorE-mail:[email protected]

Snail Mail: The Editor, Digit Channel Connect, B-118, Sector 2, Noida 201301

sounding boardsounding board

n As per an estimate by the International Association of Electronics Recyclers, three bil-

lion units of consumer electronics products (including IT) will have been discarded in

the decade 2001-2010. Only a tiny portion of this will be recycled.

n Only 1% of China’s 560 million city residents breathe air that is considered safe by

the European Union.

n According to a US Environment Protection Agency study, conducted in USA for 2007,

of the 2.25 million tonnes of TVs, cell phones and computer products ready for end-

of-life (EOL) management, 18% (414,000 tonnes) was collected for recycling and

82% (1.84 million tonnes) was disposed of, primarily in landfills.

n If the entire world lived like the average American, we would need five Earth-like

planets to provide enough resources.

n A MAIT-GTZ study by IMRB International reveals that India generated 3.3 lakh tonnes

of e-waste in 2007 and is expected to generate 4.7 lakh tonnes by 2011.

SANJAY GUPTAEditorDigit Channel Connect [email protected]

Or goes phut all too soon. Or becomes out-of-fashion or obsolete. Ultimately, much of the stuff is thrown away prematurely, remains underused or was never needed in the first place!

Like I said before, all this will not look appetising to marketers, salesmen and consumers determined to, well, selling more and consuming more. Their objec-tion: What happens to the industry’s growth and consumers’ prosperity? What happens to G-D-P? (I don’t know; something happening to GDP is impor-tant, but so is something happening to the environ-ment. Perhaps more.)

In my opinion, green is more about habit than technology. The habit of producing goods that last longer. The habit of selling customers what they really need. The habit of optimally ‘consum-ing’ things and not throwing them away at the first instance.

For the sake of the environment and our future generations and their secured well-being, are we prepared to change our habits to green?

VOL 02 | ISSUE 21SEPTEMBER 2010 | RS. 50A 9.9 MEDIA PUBLICATION

S E L E C T S E R I E S

Handy tips on how to green the enterprise PAGE 24

Going GreenThe challenges and benefits of adopting green PAGE 22

Multiple SidesHow green tech can lower opex as well as capex PAGE 16

Green Returns

Editorial.indd 1 9/24/2010 9:17:18 PM

event


T aking note of the high growth being experienced by the Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM), the

two day Infrastructure Management Services Summit 2010 by NASSCOM in Bengaluru explored the new oppor-tunities created by cloud computing and virtualisation in this sector.

Inaugurating the summit, Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM said, “The remote infrastructure manage-ment services sector has been a major growth driver for the Indian IT services industry in the past few years, and has the potential to become the third largest revenue contributor to the IT services industry by 2020.”

He further added that to sustain and achieve the potential growth, the industry needs to find effective measures to ensure 24/7 uptime of technical infrastructure, build a large pool of talent through investments in training, ensure that compliance requirements of clients are met and security best practices are imple-mented on an ongoing basis.

“The growth and potential of the sector is also showcased by the Indian RIM vendors who are securing larger and more complex deals to provide

RIM services, and are also engaging in M&A activities to expand their service capabilities inorganically,” said Mittal. According to him, the remote infra-structure management industry is driving non-linear growth in the Indian IT industry, with a five times growth in exports and four times growth in employees. The service providers are enabling transformation of their client businesses by offering planning, consul-tation and network transformation.

Attended by various IT executives, the summit pointed out that all indus-try players, including Indian and MNC companies as well as captives are step-ping up their managed services offer-ings to seize the opportunity presented by the sector. The top five players of the IT industry account for close to 50% share in the export revenues. The BFSI sector has the greatest traction to RIM services, followed by other emerging verticals like telecom, retail, M&E and manufacturing.

According to the honchos, the emer-gence of new and disruptive platforms like cloud computing and virtualisa-tion have created new opportunities for this sector.

The session with Ram C Mohan, Head IM, Mind Tree and Sunil Rawlani,

A NASSCOM meet in Bengaluru predicts Remote Infrastrucure

Management as the third largest revenue contributor to the Indian IT

services industry by 2020PAYAL PRUTHI

Executive Vice President IT, Process, Quality, HDFC Life Insurance as key speakers deliberated upon what part of the cloud pie will render itself to outsourcing and how ready are Indian RIM players to tap the opportunity. The session by Milan Rao, CEO, Enterprise Business, Bharti Airtel on data center of the future, facilitated identification of how to leverage virtusalisation and automation technologies to create next generation data centers which deliver new levels of service quality, scalability, agility and flexibility.

What technologies should an enter-prise embrace in order to become a next generation collaborative enter-prise, the challenges in designing, implementing and managing solu-tions that would enable such collab-orations, were some of the issues addressed by Rajesh Uppal, Executive Officer(IT) & CIO, Maruti Udyog and S Anantha Sayana, Head, Corportae IT, Larsen&Toubro.

Emerging trends, new models for adoption and the roadmap for the RIM industry were some of the other questions which were debated and deliberated upon during the event.n

[email protected]

“The remote infrastructure management

services sector has

been a major growth driver for the Indian

IT services industry in the past few

years.”

GoingRemote

for

SOM MITTAL, PRESIDENT, NASSCOM

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

Event_Fuelling the growth of RIM Services.indd 4 9/24/2010 9:19:23 PM

printing


Inter and intra office printing constitutes a big part of any organisation’s carbon footprint. A good starting step could be to

green the print operations within the company itself.

But, how do you establish green pract ices or take your cur rent programme to the next level?

Here are 10 steps toward building environmentally sustainable print operations that you should consider for your plan:

1 Appoint a staf f member to be responsible for the programme. Someone must be responsible for seeing that progress is reviewed on a regular basis.

2 Practice the three Rs. Reducing waste, recycling, and reusing materials are practices that anyone can under-take in any business and at printing plants, they can save money.

3 Reduce paper usage. Wherever possible, use paperless proofing and workflow systems.

4 Give your customers green paper choices. Offer recycled paper and source your virgin paper from manufacturers who have certified environmentally sustainable supply chains. You can also have your own shop certified for its green role in chain of custody.

5 Avoid toxic chemicals in paper and ink. Avoid papers that use the hazardous chemical chlorine as a bleaching agent. Vegetable and soy-based inks—and toner—are more environmentally friendly than petro-leum-based inks, and most toner cartridges and bottles can be recycled to reduce overall waste.

6 Make green equipment choices. Digital printing is the greenest choice among print technologies. Digital uses fewer solvents than most offset presses, and the few hazardous materials they employ have been phased out by many

manufacturers. Furthermore, digital processes result in less waste than other technologies. Print-on-demand practices deliver only the volumes required, reducing waste and energy used for warehousing.

Distribute-and-print networks do the same over long distances—and also reduce energy intensive trans-portation. Personalised printing cuts page volumes by targeting informa-tion more precisely. Seek energy star-compliant equipment that conserves energy and is designed for remanu-facturing or recycling.

7 Do business with green suppli-ers. Cultivate a positive halo effect by working with suppliers who demon-strate long-standing commitments to green business practices.

8 Certify that your organisa-tion is green. One of the most highly

Green initiatives can benefit your company, your employees, your

customers, your commu-nity, and the world

MARK PETIT

respected green standards is ISO 14001 certification.

9 Let the world know you are green. Marketing your sustainability initiatives helps position your company as a leader while adding momentum to the global sustainability movement.

10 Learn—and stay current with—what’s possible. Trade media, industry organisations, and vendors all have focused on providing infor-mation about environmental sustain-ability in recent years.

Done right, green initiatives can benefit your company, your employees, your customers, your community, and the world. n

Mark Petit is the Executive Director for the Xerox Global Services (XGS)

division for India and South Asia.Courtesy – IT Next

Digital printing is

the greenest choice

among print technologies.

Reducing waste,

recycling, and reusing materials are practices that anyone can undertake

in any business and

at printing plants, they

can save money.

Offer recy-cled paper and source your virgin paper from manufac-

turers who have certified environmen-tally sustain-able supply

chains.

10steps tosustainable

print operations

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

10 steps to sustainable print operations.indd 6 9/24/2010 9:12:35 PM

trends


One of the world’s most energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and cost-effective data centre buildings has

been unveiled by Yahoo in Lockport, Niagara County, New York. The state-of-the-art facility uses a combination of innovative data center design and Lockport’s naturally cool climate to dramatically decrease its electricity use throughout the year.

According to Yahoo’s Carol Bartz, “Yahoo is serious about sustainability and is lead-ing efforts to address climate change. That’s why we believe in creating highly efficient data centers that minimize the impact on the environment.”

The Lockport facility will have the first imple-mentation of Yahoo’s green data centre design, called the Yahoo Computing Coop (YCC). The best-in-class, energy-efficient design was recog-nized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2010 with a sustainability grant of USD 9.9 million, the largest award received from the DOE’s recent Green IT grant programme.

The facil ity uses a combination of Lockport’s cool climate, prevailing winds and hydropower to keep the 120-by-60-foot server buildings cool. The YCC design, dubbed the “Yahoo Chicken Coop,” mimics the long, narrow design of a chicken coop to encourage natural air flow 100% of the time, resulting

in an annualized average of less than 1% of the building’s total energy consumption being required to cool the facility. Yahoo’s Lockport data centre is among the most efficient data centers in the world, with a low Power Usage Effectiveness1 (PUE) of 1.08, compared with the industry average of 1.922.

According to the company, the Lockport data centre will consume at least 40% less energy, and at least 95% less water than conventional data centers.

According to David Dibble of Yahoo, “With the Yahoo Chicken Coop design, we are spend-ing less than one cent for cooling for every dollar spent on electricity.” n

Yahoo unveils green data centre in New York

HP-TAIT war worsens

In a change of events, it’s now Priyanka Communications, the zonal distributor for HP PSG business in Mumbai and various

other tier 2 and tier 3 partners who have locked horns with TAIT, calling the ban imposed by the association as illegal and unfair. Addressing a press meet in Mumbai, which was represented by four regional distributors of HP (HardTrac, Citifone, SSTL and RSG), 18 HP world part-ners and several retailers from the city, Manish Agrawal, Director, Priyanka Communications, stated that TAIT’s decision to boycott HP PSG reportedly serves the interest of its directors and not the larger partner community.

“TAIT’s decision reflects the feelings of a few re-trading middlemen who are conceptually not part of the busines model and their exis-tence in the new distribution model is at stake,” said Agrawal.

According to him, the retailers in Mumbai are happy with the new distribution policy of HP, as the new model ensures price stability, high level of service to retailers and a single

point of contact for any business related issues. He further added that by imposing the ban, TAIT is preventing new people from opening an IT business.

“How does TAIT define an IT and a non IT partner? We have been the distributors not only for Nokia but also have direct business with Dell and HCL Infosystems. Citiphone, SSTL and RSG too have experience in IT distribution. Technology and the markets are converging, due to which convergence at the distribution level is bound to happen,” said Agrawal.

The partners who attended the meet also unanimously conveyed that the action taken by TAIT is illegal and as individual businessmen, they may go to appropriate courts and seek justice.

Meanwhile, TAIT issued a state-wide HP PSG boycott, asking its member partners to clear out stocks. The channel association has been demanding the replacement of tele-com partners (Priyanka Communications,

SSTL and RSG) at the tier-1 and tier-2 levels with IT channel partners by HP.

“We are calling for a committee meeting tomorrow to decide on the further course of action. We stand by with our decision and are aware that this press meet was called only on the insistence of HP. The brand value of HP has greatly suffered along with the monetary setback in the Mumbai region,” said a senior TAIT Committee member.

Very recently, the Kerela Channel Association AKIDTA too had boycotted HP PSG division. The nearly two-month long standoff ended only after HP PSG reportedly agreed to resolve issues pertaining to the new consumer PC distribution model and policy. “The unrest among HP channel partners has greatly affected the vendor’s business. In Kerela alone, HP suffered a loss of 25 crores as far as the total sales around Onam were concerned. HP seriously needs to take note of it,” said Toshy Mathew, President, AKIDTA.n

Payal Pruthi

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

Trends.indd 7 9/24/2010 9:03:36 PM

trends


Fenda has launched the F&D A-Series speakers, which the company says are eco-friendly devices.

New digital technology and use of high-frequency power reduces standy power consumption to 3W in these new speakers, enabling the mainstream speaker to lower energy consumption by almost half.

Considering the high voltage variation in India, the F&D A-Series has wide voltage ranging from AC88V-264. It also protects the system against 5 most possible ways of high voltage: protection of regulator, short circuit, overcurrent, overvoltage and thermal to maximize the speaker performance.

Fenda patented-inte-grated chip of bass driver can filter out extra low-frequency bass and send the best signal to amplifier, thus ensuring the subwoofer to give a clean and perfect bass.

Also, most 2.1 multi-media speakers have a 5” sub woofer, but in order to give consumers a deeper base experience, A-Series has been upgraded to 6.5” sub woofer and 11 litre capacity.n

Rashi Peripherals has announced “Sona Barse offer” on purchase of ADATA DRAM, pendrives and

Micro SD ranges of products. Under this scheme, partners will be entitled to win gold based on a fixed slab of purchases made by them during the period the scheme runs.

On purchase of ADATA range of prod-ucts worth Rs.15 lakhs, partners will get an incentive in form of 10 grams of gold. Similarly, on purchase of products worth Rs.11.3 lakhs, partners are eligible to get 7 grams gold, for purchases worth Rs.8.75 lakhs: 5 grams of gold, for purchases of Rs.5.75 lakhs: 3 grams gold and for purchases worth Rs.4.2 lakhs, the incentive is 2 grams of gold.

According to Rajesh Goenka, VP – Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals, “We have always believed in incentivizing our performing partners. Our objective behind launching this offer is to ensure that our partners earn a higher ratio of profit on ADATA business line. We want our partners to capitalize on the brand value of ADATA and earn incentive on their hard work by participating in this scheme. ”

The scheme will be valid on purchases made through Rashi Peripherals and on entire range of ADATA products distributed by Rashi from September 18 thru September 30th 2010.n

CompTIA, the US based non-profit trade association for the IT indus-try, has decided to expand its services in India. It would further enhance its association with the enterprise by offering a host of

services, such as business intelligence, IT certifications, research stud-ies, and advocating for smart technology, for Indian IT companies and IT professionals.

CompTIA facilitates dialogues and creates programmes that cater to the needs of the global IT industry, thereby helping technology solution providers, distributors and vendors to grow their businesses.

As per the company, CompTIA will play an instrumental role in promoting innovative IT business solutions for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBS) and in the fields of healthcare, green IT, cyber-secu-rity and managed IT services. The trade association offers a range of IT certification programmes, enabling professionals to gain or enhance their skill-sets.

According to Todd Thibodeaux, President and CEO, CompTIA, “The burgeoning Indian IT market had already made its presence felt in the global market. The transfer of technology is instant; therefore corporates need a strategic business partner to help them leverage key business opportunities, enhance the skills of their employees, and to achieve sustainability. CompTIA has an in-depth understanding of the industry, and the right mix of experts and services to provide excellent support to the Indian IT companies. We are committed to growing our Indian operations to the next level of excellence and partnering with Indian corporates.”n

CompTIA to expand its services in India

Fenda launches new ‘green’ speakers

Rashi launches Sona Barse offer for partners

GlacialTech launches new notebook adaptor

GlacialTech has launched the notebook adapter AC090N that doubles up as a battery charger for 3C devices.

It has a 5V/1A USB port on its side, allowing the user to charge batteries of 3C devices such as music players, mobile phones, etc. while running his laptop.

This AC090N adaptor characterizes a high power efficiency above 88%, a maximum peak output power of 90W, a universal AC input voltage of 100-240Vac, RoHS compli-ance and safety approvals including UL, CE, TUV, etc. as well as protections against short-circuit, over-voltage, over-current, and over-temperature, qualifying it for a small-but-complete power adaptor indispensable to many applications.

This AC090N adaptor is designed with 8 levels of adjustable output volt-ages and equipped with 10 pieces of selectable output connectors, making it compatible with a multitude of the notebooks or laptops that feed on different input voltages or match with different input connectors. Also available is a 5V/1A USB output port that extends the AC090N power adaptor to a handy battery charger for a variety of 3C devices.n

Rajesh Goenka

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

Trends.indd 8 9/24/2010 9:03:43 PM

trends


Worldwide enterprise software revenue is on pace to surpass $232 billion in 2010, a 4.5% increase from 2009 revenue of $222.4 billion, according to the

latest forecast from Gartner. The enterprise software market is projected for continued growth in 2011, with revenue forecast to reach $246.6 billion. Through 2014, the market is expected to reach $297 billion at a five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6%.

Some regions will fare better than others with five-year CAGRs to 2014 varying from 2.7% in Western Europe to 11.5% in Asia/Pacific.

Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) is expected to have the fastest growth in software revenue of all the regions in 2010. The market for enterprise software in Asia/Pacific is estimated to reach $22 billion in 2010, up 13% from 2009 revenue of $19.5 billion. Gartner believes that both enterprise application and infrastruc-ture software will demonstrate a strong rebound in 2010, and this positive momentum is expected to continue through 2011.

“China and India continue to be the growth engine of the soft-ware market in the region and currently represent the largest and the fourth-largest software markets in Asia/Pacific,” said Yanna Dharmasthira, Research Director at Gartner. “India also has much local market potential, while the country’s continuing integration with key global economies is generating software revenue growth in all key industries,” she added. n

Global enterprise software revenue to surpass $232 billion

Kingston Digital, the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Te c h n o l og y C o m p a ny, h a s announced the launch of its first USB 3.0 flash drive - the Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 Flash drive. It takes advantage of the faster USB 3.0 specification that has up to ten times the data transfer rates of the current USB 2.0 specification.

The DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 has a read speed of 80MB/sec. and a write speed of 60MB/sec. It is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities.

As per the company, the combi-nation of speed and size makes it ideal for data backup or fast

transferring of large files includ-ing music, photos and videos. To ensure backwards compat-ibility, Kingston is also includ-ing a Y cable, as some USB 2.0 ports require it to initialize USB 3.0 drives.

According to Nathan Su, Flash Memory Sales Director, APAC Region, Kingston, “The DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 is our first USB 3.0 Flash drive offering, and is designed for enthusiasts who like to embrace new technol-ogy before it goes mainstream.”

The Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 USB Flash drive is backed by a five-year warranty and free tech support.n

Kingston Digital launches USB 3.0 flash drive

Imation India, a fully owned subsidiary of Imation Corp., has announced its plans to further its reach and distribution network in the country through appointment of Redington India as its national distributor

besides Neoteric Informatique. Imation will expand its existing reach through Redington’s extensive

network of over 18,700 channel partners across the country includ-ing Value-Added Resellers (VARs), System Integrators, (SIs), corporate partners, retailers and other channel categories.

According to Kiran S Nair, Country Leader, Imation India, “Since Redington has its presence in all market territories, this tie-up shall be of help as far as our distribution and channel objectives are concerned.”

Redington India shall sell Imation and TDK Life on Record’s entire range of products including optical storage products like CD-R, CD-RW and DVD, external hard disk drives, flash drives and flash cards, acces-sories like mouse and headsets, and tape products.n

Imation appoints Redington India as national distributor

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

Trends.indd 9 9/24/2010 9:03:50 PM

trends


Inspan Infotech, an IT distribu-tion company for motherboards and hardware components, has

announced the launch of Genius Speakers SW 5.1 1005, which is the latest PC theatre system from Genius.

Genius SW 5.1 1005 speaker system is a set of 6 speakers, which has a RMS audio output of 26 watts.

As per the company, the MDF wooden subwoofer is elegantly designed and has a 3” driver that delivers a good bass effect and distortion-free sound.

Easily accessible controls for power, volume and bass are provided on the stylish subwoofer. Color coded cable plugs ensure

hassle free connections to PC. The subwoofer has a RMS output of 13.5 watts and the satellites have an output of 2.5 watt each.

“This is the first time Genius is bringing this product to India. Inspan is happy to launch this product. With the increasing trend of PC being the source of infotain-ment, accessories are expected to enhance their performance. This product does just that. We are sure customers would welcome this and partners would get more opportu-nities to capitalize the trend,” said Sudhir S, Managing Director of Inspan Infotech.

With an MRP of Rs.3,510, this product is available ex-stock and has a warranty of 1 year.n

Inspan launches new PC theatre system from Genius

Hi-Tech Solutions has announced the launch of “eDiary”, which it claims is the world’s first electronic

diary that can capture the handwritten page and store it in the computer at the click of a button.

Costing as little as a - mid-end cell phone, the eDiary frees the users to write normally (on any paper of their choice) and still be able to store the information digitally. It does away with the need for typing or looking for a source to charge the laptop.

The eDiary comes with a standard B5-sized paper notebook fitted with a small base unit placed on the top-margin and a special electronic pen (e-Pen). The ePen func-tions as any normal writing instrument with a normal changeable refill and has additional electronics that works with the base unit to capture the handwriting strokes.

edairy has built-in memory to save up to 100 pages of written notes at a time, which can later be downloaded to a PC with the help of USB cable. Weighing only 40 grams more than a regular diary of similar size, it is easy to carry in a hand-bag, knapsack or briefcase.

Software application provided with the eDiary has the functionality to orga-nises notes and if required, convert the handwritten notes to normal computer text. This portable device enables users to search files by name, date and even search a specific word within notes.

eDiary also incorporates features like

Hi-Tech Solutions launches eDiary that can capture pages

Microsoft, along with The Times of India (TOI) and Lodestar Universal has announced a 30 day long ‘Win

Big with Original’ campaign across 8 cities in india.

This campaign aims to help the consumer to identify the benefits of using original Windows 7, which now comes with the advantage of Microsoft Security Essentials.

According to Ranjiv Singh, Consumer and Online Marketing Officer, Microsoft India, “With Microsoft Security Essentials, we have anticipated consumers’ security needs and delivered a simple and non-intrusive PC protection by offering consumers a real-time, high-quality protection that is easy to get and easy to use, hence giving consum-ers a delightful experience that comes with genuine Windows.”

The ‘Win Big with Original’ campaign programme would target various IT hubs across 8 cities including Indore, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Patna and Vizag. Interrupt marketing would be used in this initiative as a tool for direct customer engagement.

“Engaging and exciting the PC buying intender is the main reason why we wanted to drive this activity at the IT Hubs of key cities. The dual objective is to drive awareness of the benefits of using original Windows 7, which saves money and keeps the PC secure for life. With this campaign, we are driving PC buyers to the retail stores where they can buy PCs with original Windows,” said Anindya Ray, General Manager Lodestar UM Delhi. n

Microsoft, TOI announce ‘Win Big with Original’ campaign

schedule to make it easy to work with to-do lists and note appointments. The device also enables the user to take printouts, share the hand written notes by email or transfer hand-made sketches to editing software such as MS-Paint and CorelDraw, after converting to tiff format.

In India, the Hi-Tech eDiary is available online on www.letsbuy.com at an price of Rs.9,350, and carries a manufacturer’s warranty of 1 year. It will be soon available with selected retailers across India.n

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

Trends.indd 10 9/24/2010 9:03:54 PM

trends


KP Unnikrishnan joins Brocade as APAC director of marketing

MSI ties up with Staples to extend retail reach in India

Micro Star International (MSI) has announced that it is further enhancing its retail presence, by tying up with Staples for its newly launched F series of notebooks.

Starting September end, the premier F Series range of MSI laptops will be retailed by Staples, through its large format retail stores across 4 cities - Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune & Noida.

With Staples, MSI hopes to reach out to the high-profile customer base of Staples with its stylish and power-packed F-Series notebooks. Staples will be setting up special MSI displays across its stores in major metros.

According to Tony Yang, MD of MSI India, “Staples stores are also frequented by high-income customers who are used to dealing with the best. It is an ideal outlet for the F-Series, which has been specially designed keeping in mind the high-style and features demand of this segment.”

“The tie-up with Staples helps MSI complete its 360° coverage of end-customers in India. Staples provides us the opportunity to really show up the feature rich offer-ing of the F Series against other products available in this price range. We hope to further enhance the collaboration with Staples within next 6 months,” Brian Huang, Manager Retail Business for MSI India said.

“With MSI products in our product portfolio, we aim to put forward to our custom-ers advancement to newer trends in technology,” said the Staples spokesperson. n

Transcend Information has announced a upgrade of its 2.5’’ Solid State Drives (SSD). The new SSDs have transfer speeds reach-

ing 260MB/s and storage capacities up to 512GB.According to Gordon Wu, Regional Head –

South Asia, Transcend, “Transcend’s new 2.5’’ SATA SSDs feature an upgraded controller chip that supports a maximum sequential transfer speed of 260MB/s read and 200 MB/s write.”

T h e n e w 2 . 5 ’’ S ATA S S D s f u l ly s u p p o r t t h e TRIM command, which is essential to maintain opti-mum write speeds, and a lso reduces long-ter m SSD wear. Featuring stor-age capacity up to 512GB, Transcend’s upgraded SSDs are large enough to store operating systems, appli-cations and more. Transcend’s 2.5’’ SSDs can also be installed in desktop computers to improve performance and reliability. n

Transcend revamps its solid state drive lineup

Brocade has announced the appoint-ment of K.P. Unnikrishnan as director of marketing for Asia Pacific. Effective

immediately, Unnikrishnan will be based in Singapore and report to the Vice President of Strategic Marketing, Elaine Cheung.

In his new role, Unnikrishnan will lead the regional marketing team to help drive market-ing excellence in Asia Pacific through building brand awareness for Brocade in the ether-net market, generate qualified sales leads, and spearhead integrated programs to help bring the Brocade One unifying network architecture and strategy to market through-out the region.

U n n i k r i s h n a n joins Brocade from Sun Microsystems where he was regional marketing director for Emerging Markets, responsible for execut-i n g S u n ’ s g l o b a l marketing strategy across the Emerging Markets region, span-

ning South East Europe, Latin America, Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa, India and Greater China. Under his leadership, the company recorded significant increases in

qualified leads contributing to a strong reve-nue pipeline and new customer acquisitions.

Prior to this role, Unnikrishnan served as Director of Marketing, Alliances and Teleweb Sales at Sun Microsystems India, where he led field marketing, corporate communi-cations, corporate branding and tactical programmes.

“Unni will bring a global perspective to Brocade’s regional marketing function. He has a demonstrated track record in building businesses, as well as measuring the market-ing contribution to growth and meeting over-all business objectives,” said Deb Dutta, Vice President, Brocade Asia Pacific. n

K.P. Unnikrishnan

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

Trends.indd 11 9/24/2010 9:04:01 PM

trends


Buf falo Technology has unveiled its AirStation Nfiniti Wireless-N Dual

Band Ethernet Converter, Access Point and Bridge.

As per the company, the portable Ethernet converter is a versatile wireless device that extends the capability of a wireless network by offering three operat-ing modes for limitless flexibility.

AirStation Nfiniti Wireless-N Dual Band Ethernet Converter can connect any two wired devices, such as printers, gaming

consoles or DVRs, to an existing wireless network.

Turning any wired network into a high speed 11n network, it can also extend the range by connecting two or more wireless networks. 802.11n dual band support allows good performance and compatibility, thus provid-ing easy connectivity, making it a good option for wireless video streaming, gaming and other high performance uses.

“O u r p o r t ab l e E t h e r n e t converter provides feature-rich

connectivity solution to consum-ers with ease of use and speed. The Nfiniti wireless Ethernet Converter provides great speed

for music, internet phone, email, video and gaming as compared to N Technology. It only requires a one-time setup, which means that it can be moved from device to device without reconfiguration” said Susumu Kobayashi, Country Head, Buffalo Technology.

Backed with 2 years of replace-ment war ranty, the Buf falo AirStation Nfiniti Wireless-N Dual Band Ethernet Converter is priced at Rs,3,500. The product is avail-able in the market with reseller and large format retail outlets.n

HP I n d i a o r g a n i s e d i t s e i g h t h a n n u a l c h a n n e l e v e n t ,

Achieving Channel Excellence (ACE), in Macau from 21-24 August, 2010. The event, attended by 250 channel part-ners, rewarded the compa-ny’s top performing partners

across consumer, commercial, supplies and retail divisions in India.

During the course of 4 days, the company hosted close to 20 focused group discus-sions covering varied themes Partners were divided into dif ferent g roups and each

group had representation from specific regions.

Awards were given out to partners under various catego-ries: Sai Business from Lucknow won the award for the Best Supplies Upcountry Partner whereas Cascade System & Communication was facili-

tated with the Best Supplies Metro Partner award. In the Best Hardware Upcountr y Categor y, Star Computer s from Trivandrum took the lead whereas Berlia Compu System from Kolkata won the Best Hardware Metro Partner award. n

Ruckus Wireless has announced the appoint-ment of Manjit Singh

as Managing Director, India & SAARC, to oversee its business opera-tions in the region.

S i n g h h a s 2 0 years of industry experience and led the sales operations for Radwin Wireless Solutions prior to joining Ruckus.

Earlier, he has worked with Openwave Systems, Comverse Technologies, Lucent Technologies and Alcatel Networks.

According to Selina Lo, President and CEO of Ruckus Wireless, “Manjit brings unpar-alleled knowledge of the local

market that wi l l prove invaluable to growing our busi-ness in India.”

The company’s products have been d e p l o ye d i n t h e region by enter-prises like Tikona Digital Networks, Lovely Professional

University, SevenHills Hospital, L e o n i a Re s o r t s , T h a p a r University and JW Marriott Bangalore.n

Buffalo launches new portable Ethernet converter

HP India hosts annual channel meet in Macau

Ruckus Wireless appoints Manjit Singh as India headLogitech has introduced the Logitech Keyboard K120, which is avail-

able in India for a recommended retail price of Rs.565. As per the company, the Logitech Keyboard K120 can with-

stand up to 10 million keystrokes and features strong tilt legs. It also features a spill and crash resistant design.

In addition to this, L og i t e c h Key b o a r d K 1 2 0 f e a t u r e s a ‘Comfort Wave’ design where the keyboard has a gradual wave-shaped contour to support the varying

lengths of fingers and to keep the pressure off the fingertips.

“Logitech Keyboard K120 is not just slim and sleek.It’s tough with a spill-resistant design, sturdy tilt legs and durable keys. With Logitech Keyboard K120, you get the high quality and reliability. In addition to this, setting up the Logitech Keyboard K120 is very simple. Just plug your keyboard into USB ports on your desktop, laptop or netbook computer and start using it,” said Subrotah Biswas, Country Manager- India & South West Asia.

Logitech K120 keyboard is distributed by Rashi Peripherals and Savex Infomatic in India.n

Logitech USB keyboard K120 unveiled

Manjit Singh

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

Trends.indd 12 9/24/2010 9:04:11 PM

networking


T hese days, networking prod-uct manufacturers of fer customers such a vast array of features and functions

that it can make choosing the ideal solution for the application a daunt-ing and demanding task. Products will usually be installed with a working life expectancy of three to five years; therefore, many network administra-tors must guess which functions will serve them best in the long-term.

There is another factor that must be taken into consideration - the new environmentally friendly range of networking equipment, developed to meet the needs of a new, more energy conscious marketplace. The hype surrounding energy efficiency has created a substantial upsurge in the development of green products, with many manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon. If network administrators are truly concerned with saving power, the question is: what key functions should they look for when examining a datasheet for ‘green’ products?

Things to keep in mindThe most obvious way to be ‘green’

when it comes to networking equip-ment is to recycle responsibly and to choose a product which has been manufactured using eco-friendly materials. In fact, the most important issue for the network administrator when choosing ‘green’ networking solutions is its efficiency whilst in use, as this can also yield cost savings.

Determining the power efficiency of networking equipment is an essential

part of inspecting how ‘green’ prod-ucts are. Power supply efficiency indi-cates how much energy is wasted when powering the electronic components of the networking equipment. Power supplies can vary in efficiency from between 40% and 80%, a considerable variation. Consequently, a highly effi-cient power supply can halve the total power needed by a switch. In addition, inefficiency generates heat, which in many cases must be extracted from a building or a server room using air conditioning. This further increases both CAPEX and OPEX costs, and clearly, is less environmentally friendly. So, network administrators must verify power consumption by comparing this on the product’s datasheets against other products of its type.

Eco-friendly networking equipment should also include power saving func-tions. ‘Green’ switches use a variety of mechanisms to save power and these must be scrutinized when picking the ‘greenest’ product on the market. Such features include the ability to ‘power down’ ports when they are not in use. This is an important part of the ‘green’ checklist, as in practice, it is common for network administrators to use 75% of the total number of ports on a switch, withholding the remaining 25% for future network expansion. If these ports cannot be put into a ‘power down’ mode or disabled manually, they will consume power even when they are not connected.

The length of the cabling is also a key specification for power savings. If the physical configuration doesn’t

Figuring out the energy efficiency of a product is key to discovering how green it really is MELVYN WRAY & SUBHASISH GUPTA

demand cables of 100m, products that support this could yield incremental power savings. Equipment with the ability to switch off LEDs during the course of a 24-hour cycle can also help to reduce power consumption.

‘Green’ products should also be economical for the wide range of network loads that they have to support. Many power supplies become less efficient at either low loads or full loads. Therefore, the power saving features described here must be able to operate efficiently from no load, where there are no cables and there is full power saving functionality, to full loads, where all ports are func-tional with 100m cables in use and all LEDs switched on. As such, data-sheets must also be checked for the power consumption of the product at various load levels. The networking administrator must therefore ensure they have checked the maximum power consumption.

If datasheets are examined care-fully, choosing a ‘green’ network-ing product can be both effective to use and easy to run. If factors such as loading efficiency, power supply efficiency, materials used and power saving features are examined closely when comparing ‘green’ network-ing products, the most suitable and efficient solution for deployment will become clear.n

Melvyn Wray is Senior Vice President of Marketing-EMEA and Subhasish

Gupta is Country Manager-India and SAARC, Allied Telesis.

The most important

issue for the network

administrator when

choosing a ‘green’

networking solution is

its efficiency whilst in use,

as this can also yield cost

savings.

‘Green’ switches use a variety of

mechanisms to save power

and these must be

scrutinized when picking the ‘greenest’

product on the market.

thepuzzle

power

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

Networking-The Power Puzzle.indd 13 9/24/2010 9:24:04 PM

focus


I n the last couple of years, ‘Green’ is the mantra that most IT vendors have been following to define their ‘innovative’ plans and strategies.

Many vendors have been constantly investing in making their products ‘Green’ and eco-friendly. For example, many LCD TVs, monitors, motherboards, hard drives, printers, scanners, etc are now available with features that help consum-ers conserve power. However, a popular PC component that is gaining the ‘Green’ tag nowadays are graphic cards. Though most of us might still believe that graphic cards are power-hungry devices and are still far away from the ‘Green’ factor, it is time to take a relook at the market closely. Today, majority of graphic cards manu-facturers, the likes of Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Zotac, XFX, Palit Microsystems, Sapphire and Big-Tek among others are talking about eco-friendly graphic cards.

Maintaining an eco-minded profile, Asus has recently launched Bravo220, an eco-friendly graphics card, which (as per the company) offers approximately 21% more power savings compared to competing models. According to the company, various innovative features in the newly launched graphic card ensures quick heat dissipation and greater longevity, without falling back on power-hungry active cooling, thus minimising energy consumption.

Another leading manufacturer of graphic cards – MSI has also recently unveiled a graphic card in this category.

They say that their N9600GT Hybrid Frozr graphics card utilises the Hybrid Frozr technology, which enable users to monitor the temperature and control the ventilation for a more silent opera-tion, high computing performance and effective heat dissipation. As per a compa-ny’s spokesperson, MSI will continue to pursue environmental protection activi-ties and increase environmental aware-ness in a variety of areas. MSI has also claimed that the Hybrid Frozr technology is distinctively designed to conserve and save energy resources. The spokesperson adds, “The Hybrid Frozr cooling technol-ogy has a built-in interior fan for tempera-ture control and utilises 6mm thick heat pipes for effective thermal conductivity.” Gigabyte too has launched a GeForce 9600 GT Green Version graphic card with eco-friendly features.

Channel reactions

While launching innovative prod-ucts is the USP for growth of most IT vendors, for System Integrators (SIs), Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and Solution Providers (SPs) – the success mantra is to stay updated, and imple-ment or sell all new products, solutions and technologies.

Parag Shah, Proprietor of Mumbai-based Futech Computers, an Asus reseller, says that eco-friendly graphic cards are the latest “in” thing. He adds that Asus’ newly launched eco-friendly graphic cards have gained good accep-

The latest to tout the eco-friendly tag are graphics cards, but can you make money selling them? SAKET ANUPAM

tance in the market and such technol-ogy will define the future of graphic cards. “Though they are slightly over priced as compared to normal graphic cards, but users have to consider the fact that they would also save money in the long-term, i.e., their high invest-ments will be compensated in the form of low electricity bills. I am optimistic that with the increasing popularity of green products, and with more and more people understanding the hazardous affects of using high power consuming gadgets to the environ-ment, the future for eco-friendly graphic cards is going to be bright.”

The way aheadLooking at the future, it is safe to

say that we would see more and more products being launched that are eco-friendly. A lot of vendors are already pushing various products such as moth-erboards, display monitors, hard drives and even a few laptops that are ‘Green’. Also, with the growing awareness in terms of eco-friendly products and the increase in usage of computers across enterprises, SMBs and even home users - the new range of eco-friendly graphics cards should attract a good amount of attention from all sectors.

However, the call of the future would be for the manufacturers to make high-end eco-friendly graphics cards, and also SIs and VARs to help the manufacturers sell these prod-ucts by educating customers about their benefits. This would definitely make a major impact on the overall ‘Green revolution’.n

[email protected]

With the grow-ing awareness

in terms of eco-friendly products, the new range of eco-friendly

graphics cards should attract

a good amount of attention

from all sectors.

The call of the future would

be for the manufactur-ers to make

high-end eco-friendly

graphics cards, and also SIs and VARs to

help the manu-facturers sell

these products by educating

customers about their benefits.

REENOINGTHE

WAYg

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

Focus-Graphic Cards.indd 14 9/24/2010 9:23:04 PM

green returns


M uch like everything else in our lives today, green is in for IT. Green computing is on the rise

and it has already established itself as a major buzzword because people are fast realizing the hazards caused due to high IT demand that is followed by new hardware manufacture. New chips, inventions of cutting edge tech-nology to produce crystal clear and real to life images on screen, the race of producing the most efficient proces-sors, printers that can print at higher speed, or even keyboard and mouse that don’t need any cables! All of these are adding to environmental problems, as the world becomes heavily depen-dent on technology for day to day life.

Luckily, the good news is following. Even in the face of a weak economy, twice as many organisations are expected to accelerate their green IT plans. Little confused on how green IT aims to achieve this? Well, green IT initiatives are financially motivated. They focus on revealing prospects for cost reduction that were otherwise hidden, such as costs from idle PCs and servers, data center cooling, and

single-sided printing. With increase in environmental concerns from operat-ing and disposing of IT assets, practi-cal IT leaders are deploying green IT to espouse ecological aspirations with financial realities.

While there are myriad best prac-tices for this theory, interestingly, they come at no extra cost except time. To quote some of them, turning on duplex printing or enabling PC power saving settings will have tangible and direct impact on cost savings. At the same time, financial investment may often be required that can eventually help improve hardware, software and the services domain. It is important here that there are different returns for different kinds of investments and IT ops professionals should understand their options and prioritize green IT investments to see the best returns for their organisations.

What are green IT technologies ?

Green IT can be termed as a cumu-lative term that combines operational best practices, services and technology assets. When we say assets, it includes

The pursuit of green technologies can lower IT operational and capital costs

hardware as well as software assets. Major IT hardware assets include thin clients, localized cooling equipment and peripherals, whereas the chunk of soft-ware assets is virtualisation software, PC power management software and data de-duplication software. Services, on the other hand, facilitate and help green IT ambitions such as energy audit services, well managed printing services, asset recycling and disposal systems. Not to say, best practices are to guide technology related human popu-lation to make it more effective.

“Green for IT” and “IT for Green”

Green IT is not something limited to the premises of IT companies. It can be applied within and outside of IT. These two faces of the concept are commonly also termed as ‘Green for IT’ and ‘IT for Green’.

Let’s briefly peep into these two. Green for IT – which Forrester denotes as Green IT 1.0 – takes a full life-cycle approach similar to software life-cycle. It starts from design and creation and gets concluded at operation and final disposal. The primary aim behind this

Green IT can be termed as a cumulative

term that combines

operational best practices, services and technology

assets.

Even in the face of a weak

economy, twice as many organisations are expected to accelerate

their green IT plans.

PRACTICAL IS HOWGREEN

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

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Practicality of Green Computing.indd 16 9/24/2010 9:06:57 PM

green returns


IT for Green – versioned as Green IT 2.0 by Forrester deals with lowering

the broader environmental

impacts across the business

value chain through use

of IT.

is reduction of environmental impact of technologies within data centers such as network, cooling components, storage, servers and power distribu-tion. This way, it spreads little outside the data centers to PCs, monitors, printers and phones.

IT for Green – versioned as Green IT 2.0 by Forrester – deals with lowering the broader environmental impacts across the business value chain through use of IT. In other words, this is usage of IT for environmental bene-fit. Use of videoconferencing, supply chain software, building automation and carbon management suites may be some of the examples.

Environmental valuesGreen IT within an organisation

focuses on reduction of hazardous chemicals required to manufacture IT equipment that are a backbone of the industry, curtailing carbon emissions initiating from energy requirements for running these IT equipments, and controlling electronic landfill waste from disposing of these IT equipments.

Green IT 2.0 focuses on applying technology to reduce the environmen-

tal impacts deriving from broader busi-ness activities such as carbon emissions due to energy requirement to light up retail stores or modern mega shopping malls, carbon emissions from fuels used by fleet of trucks, or waste material from product manufacturing industries.

Financial valuesGreen IT carries a lot of financial

rewards besides environmental bene-fits. By applying green IT tactics, organ-isations can generate financial values from reduced cost of electricity and fuel. Also, green IT helps in mitigating risks including carbon cap-and-trade, electronic wastes (e-waste) regulation, and improved public brand image and comes with the perk of increased reve-nue by offering eco-friendly services and products to those consumers who are environment-conscious.

Why does that matter? It’s not an alien word for us today

when someone murmurs pollution, climate change, water shortage or e-waste. What is disheartening is that it is mounting instead of decreasing with each passing day.

Today, IT is viewed as a major contributor to this. Ironically, IT is also seen as the realm from where we can seek a solution to this ever magnify-ing problem. So which entrepreneur is smarter? One who compromises on the environment for profit? Or one who uses the environment as another advantage point?

With governments around the globe trying to curb the effects of environ-mental impact, generating a favorable political climate and increased envi-ronmental regulations is in. This is further intensified by the continuous requirement to reduce facility cost and marking a better brand image in front of the general public who in turn are also consumers.

In short, the pursuit of greener IT translates into lower IT operational and capital cost. Originating from within data centers, it is all set to spread around and beyond IT. After all, the future of human race lies with the evolution of Green IT 2.0 – this is one critical step that will speed up in future, to save our future. n

Courtesy: CTO Forum

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

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cover story

SALESFRIENDLY?

SALESFRIENDLY?

GREEN TECHNOLOGIES

Cover-Story.indd 18 9/24/2010 9:00:18 PM

cover story


Green has become a part of our every-day life. Companies of all sizes as well as home users are all heard talking about going Green and all

seem to be following the Green trend. Vendors are developing greener products, channel partners are focusing on selling Green prod-ucts, and consumers are seen demanding Green products and technologies.

As per Wikipedia, Green computing or Green IT refers to environmentally sustain-able computing of IT. It is the study and prac-tice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associ-ated subsystems—such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and commu-nications systems—efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environ-ment. Green offers greater energy efficiency and helps reduce the carbon footprint. As per research analysts, Green IT products, applica-tions, services, and practices are not only an economic and environmental imperative, they are increasingly seen as a social responsibility. So a growing number of IT vendors and users are moving towards Green IT.

What the channel believes When it comes to IT products, some of the

key concerns are their high power consump-tion, use of hazardous chemical materials, and emission of heat. Realising this, most vendors today have adopted or are in the process of adopting Green standards and prac-tices. Industry watchers believe that the key reasons for vendors launching Green products are the soaring fuel/electricity bills, climate change as well as the recent financial crisis.

DCC spoke to various partners who claimed that some of the key Green products that sell the most are Philips Eco TV, Schneider Wiser Home Control, HP DC 7800 desktop and Apple Macbook, among others. Caviar Green hard disc drive (HDD) by Western Digital is another hot selling product in the Green cate-gory. Deepak Vidhani of Delhi-based Infotech Solutions who deals in Western Digital prod-ucts said that most often these Green hard drives are not available from the vendor’s end. “The availability of these Green drives is low. Western Digital claims that these drives use less power and support quieter, cooler-running desktop PCs and external storage devices. When we try and educate consumers about this Green hard disc drive, most prefer it over a normal HDD. Moreover, the price difference is not huge, which acts as a positive factor.”

Milind Diwanji of Ahmedabad-based Pace Computer Consultant who deals in Green products offered by manufacturers like HP and Dell believes that Green is still in the infancy stage in India and vendors should educate users about the benefits of Green. “While selling Green products, partners

should highlight cost v/s benefits to customers in the right perspective,” adds Diwanji saying that with Green being a new fad and a lot to attention paid on global climate change, partners can definitely earn more margins by deploying products based on Green technolo-gies. “This margin can be earned over the next two years and then Green might become more of a commodity.” Further explaining some of the key features that consumers look out for in a Green product Diwanji said, “Definitely the highlight is on plastic recyclable products considering it is not bio-degradable waste. Also, most vendors toady offer power-efficient products that consume less power resulting in lower cost of ownership for the equipment, in most cases over a period three years.”

For Ajay Sawant, Managing Director of Delhi-based Orient Technologies, Green IT is not merely a technology, rather a social cause. “While propagating Green to custom-ers, channel should itself try and follow Green principles. It is more to do with what environ-ment we would leave for our next generation. Global warming is no more hype today and it is better understood as a harsh reality.” He further believes that every partner should participate in positioning Green products and technologies to customers.

While most partners that DCC spoke to seemed optimistic about Green products, there were many who had their doubts. Rajiv Sethi of Liberty Automation Systems, Mumbai believes that Green cacophony is not worth the hype. “It is a tragedy that we are using Green to destroy planet earth,” comments Sethi. He further added that no one is getting anywhere near the real thing. “Yes, it is possible, logical and easy to make organisations sustainable. But what most IT vendors are doing is only take a Green tag to make customers sentimen-tal into purchasing their wares. For example, some vendors have launched air-conditioners that operate at 24 degree Celsius instead of 22 degree,” he claimed.

Sethi deals in HP products and was of view that merely calling products ‘Green’ does not

KEY BENEFITS OF GREEN SOLUTIONS

Energy efficient

Conserve less power

Environment friendly, ie are recyclable

Help reduce carbon emissions

Low total cost of ownership

Better return on investment (RoI)

Emit less radiationat their inventory levels and rotate cash effectively.

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

SALESFRIENDLY?

SALESFRIENDLY?

Does the ‘green’ or ‘environment friendly’ tag on IT products help channel partners in sales? Read on to find out...CHARU KHERA


cover story


GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL

book uses a power saving feature called ‘super hybrid engine’. Ajay Mishra of Ludhiana-based Jayant Technologies believes that these laptops sell like hot cakes. “The effort to use renewable materials in these laptops is most often appreciated by consumers. The product is very feature-rich and sports a 12.1-inch screen, Intel Core 2 Duo microprocessor and Microsoft’s Windows Vista OS.”

Xerox, too, has announced an environ-ment-friendly paper. As per the company, the paper uses less wood pulp, water and chemicals to manufacture. Xerox says that the paper comes from a mill using hydroelec-tricity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent compared to other mills. The company has also launched Green World Alliance programme, a reuse and recycling program for printer cartridges and toners.

Another vendor in the green league is Canon, which claims to use several technolo-gies that help cut down on carbon emissions and promote energy efficiency. “Two-sided printing (duplexing) technology reduces paper usage by almost 50 percent; compact product design from Canon and resized boxes improve shipping efficiency and can help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The Nature Stone brand uses biodegradable stone packaging, reducing the need for paper and other raw materials. At Canon, chemicals such as lead, hexavalent chromium, mercury and cadmium are banned for use in any product and process in an effort to reduce the organisation’s envi-

make them saleable. “If at all HP wants to follow Green initiatives, the company must encourage refilling printer cartridges and toners. Another factor that can help the vendor is by manufacturing printers that are compatible only to handmade, recycled paper.” Sharing further insights as to what vendors, partners as well as each individual consumer should do to protect the environ-ment, as opposed to what is actually done, Sethi said, “Enterprises should encourage designing buildings that house servers to be intrinsically cool, thus bringing down the need for air-conditioning. Whereas now-a-days, most building are made of glass that necessitates greater air-conditioning require-ments. Moreover, consumers too should buy computers as well as electronic equipments that do not get obsolete for minimum 10 years. On the contrary, however, vendors as well as many partners encourage customers to change computers only in a span of two years.” He further believes that the ‘Green’ suggestions by vendors are motivated not to save planet earth, but to increase their sales and accelerate the destruction of the environment.

Vendors too getting Greener While it may be true that some vendors

are merely using Green to push their products in the market and make more money, many have opted for Green initiatives within their own organisation. For example, Panasonic’s consumer business division has launched a Green initiative called ‘Eco Caravan’ to educate consumers about using energy efficient prod-ucts and making them aware of issues such as global warming and energy conservation. The company even launched plasma screens with eco quizzes on issues such as water, recycle, energy, and global warming.

Following the steps, Fujitsu claims it will reduce its global carbon dioxide (CO2) emis-sions by more than 15 million tonnes by 2012. As per the company, the Green Policy Innovation is expected to help its customers, and the public in general, substantially dimin-ish their environmental footprint. Another vendor going out of the way to go Green is D-Link. It was one of the first few to contrib-ute to Green IT in the networking technology space by launching Green Ethernet switches in the Indian market.

With all its environment-friendly initia-tives, Intel, the world’s largest processor manufacturer, has reduced its lead usage by 95 percent across all product lines. As per reports, vendors like HCL, HP, and IBM have witnessed an increase in demand for their power efficient Green products.

One of the latest products to flaunt the green tag is a laptop from Asus that uses bamboo in its casing. As per the company, the note-

ronmental footprint,” explains Puneet Datta, Senior Marketing Manager, Canon BIS.

Some popular green technologiesGreen data centres are clearly a hit among

Indian enterprises. As per reports, compa-nies that had invested in Green data centres experienced best of results during the peak of the slowdown. Various top organisations like Hitachi, Netmagic Solutions and HCC have employed Green solutions in their own data centres. Moreover, a huge amount of invest-ment in Green data centers has been done by government agencies such as Banks and PSUs (BHEL, NIC, etc). “Businesses today have started to realise that the data centre contributes signifi-cantly to the power bill and we see a lot of them moving towards Green data centres. This is where technology vendors who have advocated Green over the years and have designed products and technology around these will have a clear advantage,” explained Vivekanand Venugopal, Vice President & General Manager, India, Hitachi Data Systems. The company is focused on delivering Green data storage technology that infuses eco-friendly innovation across the entire portfolio of products.

Sharing similar thoughts, Jitendra Gupta, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Extreme

While selling Green products, partners should highlight cost v/s benefits to customers in the right

perspective”MILIND DIWANJI, CEO, PACE COMPUTER

CONSULTANT, AHMEDABAD”

While propagating Green to customers, channel

should itself try and follow Green principles.

It is more to do with what environment we

would leave for our next generation.”

AJAY SAWANT, MANAGING DIRECTOR,

ORIENT TECHNOLOGIES, DELHI



overview

Green IT can be used to save substantial power costs, meet corporate environmental responsibilities, and to stay prepared for aligning with the compliance requirements when they kick in

THEMANYSIDES

GREENOF

Green is soon going to be the norm rather than an exception. An organisation’s journey to green will ideally begin with evaluating how brown it is. While the data centres and assembly-line systems are the

known devils when it comes to gobbling power, the seemingly innocuous desktops are no saints either.

It is important to put a mechanism in place to measure power consumption by functional departments or by IT sub-systems, or even better by both. Power-spend patterns for these can then be ascertained for monthly cycles, and subsequently for quarterly cycles.

In other words, the idea is to prepare energy profiles of vari-ous IT components and systems in the organisation.

This way of profiling will also help in creating a green policy, which can then be shared with the employees, as their involvement is sought to make a green strategy successful in the organisation.

Green is mainstreamWhile vendors had already started promoting green

IT before the economic crisis took the world by surprise, the cost of deploying it was then considerably high. The crisis therefore derailed much of the green initiatives across enterprises.

The many sides of green_Overview.indd 22 9/24/2010 9:09:00 PM


overview

A good market development is that the cost of deploying green IT has come down significantly from the earlier levels, as IT vendors now ship green IT more in the mainstream than in a niche.

IT managers can use the opportunity to achieve green-readiness, perhaps before compliance requirements make it mandatory to have a certain level of green IT in the enterprise.

Yes, sooner than later, environmen-tal standards will be defined, which will lead to making deployment of green IT mandatory in the enterprise, at least partially. In such a scenario, a ‘green’ enterprise will surely have some instant competitive advantage. There are already live examples where companies in India, merely by realign-ing their systems have started drawing measurable benefits under their Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) initia-tives. Some of the well-known compa-nies which have implemented projects as per CDM guidelines include Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Jindal Vijayanagar Steel, and Indian Rayon & Industries.

Taking the initial stepsGood deeds begin in small packets,

they say. Likewise, when it comes to the implementation of a green policy, PCs are ideal candidates for initiation. A simple step of activating the power manage-ment on a PC will make a big difference. Further, users should be encouraged to switch off their PCs when leaving from work. This will help create awareness at the user level across the organisation.

The next stop can be the data centre, where interestingly, the bulk of the expenses are not on process-ing of the information but on cooling of the equipment deployed. Cooling is about 60% of the power costs in a data centre because of generally high inefficiency levels. A way to go green here is to carry out virtualisa-tion and consolidation, which will not only save power costs directly but also

through reduced usage. Improving ventilation and air f low across the data centre will also help bring down the cooling requirements and costs considerably.

Building a case for green One of the challenges faced by IT

managers is to convince top manage-ment about the benefits of going green. Just talking about return on investment doesn’t cut much ice here. It important to list down the foresee-able cost savings, the measures that will be used to calculate the benefits, and the timeframe in which the cost of green IT will be recovered. If bene-fits are listed by way of comparison with the ‘brown’ IT, it will facilitate quicker decision making and approval of green IT budgets.

Excepting greenfield scenarios, a phased approach to green IT deploy-ment is recommended. It’s neither advisable nor required to deploy green IT by ripping off existing systems that have not completed their usual lifecy-cles, as that will lead to a sudden peak in e-waste generation and will defeat the very purpose of going green.

It is also recommended that IT managers identify pockets where green IT will lead to quick and measurable returns, and use those as success studies to pitch for wider-scale deployments. These smaller projects will also serve as pilots that provide the insight and experience for larger green projects.

Beware of brownsAnother major challenge faced

by IT managers lies in a confusing plenitude of vendors and products, as there are a number of companies eager to sell their wares under the garb of green. Right from ser vers to networking cable, everything is painted green these days. In such a scenario, it is mighty difficult for an IT manager to make a choice, let alone make a right choice.

A way out of this jumble is to pay attention to the details and to stay informed about the developments in the area of green IT. This will help IT managers identify the right set of green IT requirements suited to their organisations so that they can float an effective request for a proposal that specifies the green specifications clearly and firmly. This will rule out the possibility of vendors trying to push products that have a green marketing

exterior basis just a few parameters, but fall short on a green standard’s set of parameters.

The biggest nightmare for any IT manager, however, is to figure out what to do with the equipments that were not designed with Green IT in mind. While the pace of information dissemi-nation for a greener planet has gained ground of late, the IT equipments were not designed to meet the green planet initiative standards. So, what does an IT manager do with these equipments? A bigger task at hand is to convince the management to junk these equipments and ask for fresh IT investments.

It is also important for the IT manager to sensitise the management on the economic benefits of phasing out these equipments that are most often power guzzlers. IT managers also need to identify vendors who are designing green products, and need to work towards framing policies for managing enterprise eWaste. Keeping abreast with best Green IT practices is another challenge they face.n

Courtesy: IT Next

Encourage users to switch

off their PCs when

leaving from work. This will create user level

awareness across the

organisation.

Nearly 50% of power

used by most computers is wasted as heat

jettisoned by fans.

A good market

development is that the

cost of deploying

green IT has come down significantly

from the earlier levels, as IT vendors

now ship green IT

more in the mainstream

than in a niche.

The biggest nightmare for any IT manager

is to figure out what to do with the equipments

that were not designed with Green IT in mind.

India faces a mounting problem of e-waste with only 5% of it being managed by authorised recycling agencies. MAIT says that over 94% of organisations in the country do not have a policy on how to dispose obsolete IT products and e-waste. Here is what you can do to deal with the problem:-

Extend hardware life: Another way managing e-waste is to extend the life of IT hardware. This reduces the demand for new hardware and amortizes the environmental impact of manufacturing over a longer period.

Donate IT: Charity and re-marketing could prove an effective strategy for reducing the volume of e-waste getting into the informal recycling sector. However, make sure that the products and equipments that you plan to donate are in good working condition. Do not donate junk.

Work with authorised recyclers: Lot of vendors these days offer buy back recycling facility. So, be sure to check the same before you sign on any new hardware procurement deal. For the existing IT assets, deal only with authorised recycling agencies.

The total carbon footprint of the ICT sector—including Personal Computers (PCs), peripherals, telecoms networks and devices, and data centres—was 830 Mt CO2e, about 2% of the estimated total emissions from human activity released in 2007.

MANAGING ENTERPRISE E-WASTE

QUICK TAKE

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

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The many sides of green_Overview.indd 23 9/24/2010 9:09:03 PM


real life

For the past few years, there has been an immense buzz around green, with the growing realisation that our current way of living cannot be sustainable in the long run. Every action – be it posi-tive or negative – has become very critical in the grand battle of

climate change. Much like the proverbial Butterfly Effect, the outcomes and repercussions of our every day actions can be manifold. Thus, it is not altogether surprising that ICT sector – including Personal Computers (PCs) and peripherals, telecoms networks and devices and data centres – that accounts for over 2% of total emissions from human activity, is also looking at green in a serious way.

The green debate raises two questions: How does an enter-prise go green? And more importantly, why should the IT manager be concerned?

First, from an enterprise perspective, green is not merely about envi-ronment but more about economics. Considering the ever increasing costs of power, green is more a necessity than a privilege for companies. And, indeed there is a lot that can be done on that front, right from swapping incandescent bulbs for Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs to moving into a green building. By the way, according to the Smart

2020 report, in 2002, the global data centre footprint, including equip-ment use and embodied carbon, was 76 MtCO2e, and this is expected to more than triple by 2020 to 259 MtCO2e – making it the fastest-growing contributor to the ICT sector’s carbon footprint, at 7% pa in relative terms. Hence, there is a range of things from micro to macro that can be achieved through such measures.

Coming to the IT manager part; going ahead as green becomes more and more mainstream, it will pose as a challenge and opportunity for the IT manager. Challenge, as they have to bring down the costs contin-uously to ensure higher productivity. And then, as the IT manager aspires to taken on an executive role, a green hue can be of much help and would add well to the profile.

To start off, we present a simple 6 step guide to green that covers almost all the areas. Based on a pan-India enterprise survey (IT Next Green Survey 2010), in which over 130 senior IT managers partici-pated and shared their views, the best practices in green were mapped on an enterprise scale. Culled from the numerous interactions, here is a handbook on how to implement green. So, go right ahead, and start greening your company.

Handy tips on how to green the enterpriseSHASHWAT DC ILLUSTRATION BY ANOOP PC

PRACTICAL WAYSTO GO GREEN6

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

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real life

according to some estimates as much as 60%of the power consumed.

Reducing the computing energy footprint is a little complex, and requires much diligence and applica-tion. Of the many ways, virtualisation is gaining immense ground over the past few years. In a typical scenario, enterprises will have a host of servers, often one for every enterprise-wide application, or racks and racks of stor-age containing archaic information. Virtualisation of servers and software can be of immense help, as companies can then consolidate their infrastruc-ture. In fact, a virtualisation device or a software application can track the server space and remap applications to different physical locations as neces-sary. With virtualisation, information can be made location-independent and

off their machines regularly, resulting that the desktop goes into sleep mode and consumes electricity even when it is non-operational. The best way to plug the gap is to install software on it which configures the machine in such a way that it will switch-off if there

can be redirected across multiple I/O devices and platforms.

It is much easier to go in for a green datacenter when you go in for a new one, but even the existing one can be ‘greened’ with a little planning. Server consolidation through virtualisation could be a good starting point. Next up can be software/application consoli-dation, which will help in reducing the hardware infrastructure. Cloud is also emerging as a green datacen-ter option, with the ability to host remotely and efficiently.n

is no activity for some time. It is said that for every 12 consumers who keep power settings enabled for their moni-tors and PCs, CO2 emissions equivalent to removing one average automobile from the road will be avoided.

Next comes, the monitor. All the old CRT monitors should be replaced by TFT or LCD monitors. For instance, a 17-inch CRT monitor consumes around 70 watts, while a LCD of same size will consume about 35 watts, resulting in 50% savings right away.

Thin clients are also a great solution to the power issue, as they consume much lesser power than conventional PCs and are much easier to manage as well. Thin clients consume around 15W of power, which is much lesser than a typical PC.

The next big thing on the desk-top front is virtualisation. Much like the revolution brought on the server side, desktop virtualisation also promises many gains in terms of energy savings. Also, thin clients used in conjunction with desktop virtualisation allows simpler provi-sioning of new desktops, reduced downtime and lower cost of deploy-ing new applications.n

In plain-speak, data centres are nothing less than energy-guzzling power monsters. Within a typical enterprise, the datacenter can account for anything from 15% to as much as 50% of power usage of the IT function. Hence, reducing the energy consump-tion within the datacenter is quite an essential and important aspect of going green. And the truth is, it is not that hard either, as since quite a few years, it has been on the energy map of the industry and scores of solutions are readily available.

Greening the datacenter involves two aspects, namely, reducing the computing energy map and also the ancillary energy consumption. The need to pay attention to ancillary infra-structure is important because cooling infrastructure consume much energy,

Desktops are ubiquitous and much integral part of our lives. And though, a lot has been said about laptops displacing desktops, there is still much time for the same to happen. The trouble with desktops is that with the ever increasing pace of comput-ing, the processing power, the storage capacity and the screen resolution, all have improved phenomenally and thus turned the innocuous machine in to a small power hungry device. According estimates, a typical desktop consumes anything between 80-280 KW of power depending on the configuration.

But the biggest concern is not when the desktop runs, but when the desk-top sleeps. It is estimated that close to 60% of enterprise users do not switch

XXX

“Between 30-60% Power in

Data centre is wasted. integrated

planning can reduce power consumption by 50-80%.”

“Replacing CRT monitors

with TFT’s has been

quite beneficial, as the electricity cost with TFT

was much less. Also, the longer life of TFT’s meant

additional cost

saving on replacement

front.”

SERVER CONSOLIDATION

Virtualise to consolidateThrough virtualisation, IT managers can reduce the number of servers in an energy-efficient way

DESKTOP VIRTUALISATION

Go thin to trim powerTo save big time on energy consumption, you can replace heavy-duty desktops and monitors with thin clients and LCDs

RAZAUDDIN SHAIKH, HEAD IT, ANI MEDIA

MANI BHUSHAN, MANAGER IT, PVR

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL



real life

need for such travel. And this is where Video Conferencing (VC) and other solutions come into play. By efficient communication, the need for constant travel can be reduced to a large scale and thus bringing down the carbon

advisable to frame a green mission statement. This statement can and should be now plastered across the company to remind all and sundry about the need to be conscious in every action, from powering off a PC to printing on dual side.

The way to go about creating such a policy document would be to create an advisory council that sits and delib-erates on the various issues and also looks at ways and means to educate the people and get their participation into the whole initiative. You could also look at creating a section on green policy in the office Intranet or creating a separate webpage or even a Facebook page for the same. Since, most of the people are hooked on to the internet, it can be a useful resource to spread the

footprint as well.Previous conservative estimates

have suggested that tele- and VC could replace between 5-20% of global business travel. Advanced VC applica-tions in the early stage of adoption could have a very significant impact in highly distributed service industry environments in both the private and public sectors. VC is being used heavily by every sector of business, education, medicine and government.

These days, tele-presence is quite popular among the big corporates, evident from the TP (or tele-presence) rooms that can be found in many.

Yet, don’t be bogged down by the grandiosity of VC and it’s benefits. Besides the high-grade solutions, there are many low cost versions that are freely available. For instance, Skype and Google Video Chat can be a good starting point for VC. And there is a word of caution as well. While VC might be great for the finance depart-ment’s wallet, it is not so good for an enterprise networking bandwidth. So, pay close attention to who is allowed to VC and who is not. The best way would be to draft a policy of the same that clearly defines all the issues.n

word on green and test out the ideas with the audience beforehand.

Next, pay attention to all the wast-ages that are being done within the organisation; for instance, should the central conditioning in the office work beyond the office hours, just because a few people are working late. Or how to deal with employees that shoot indiscriminate printouts and then not collect them at all.n

By and large, it is the finance func-tion within the company that frets and fumes over inter-office travel. Keeping in mind the high costs of air travel and hospitality, these concerns are not altogether unjustified. But such costs should also be the IT manager’s concern because of the environmental impact due to the huge carbon footprint associated with it. As most top executives in any organisation are frequently on the move from one office to another.

Thus, as an organi-sation assesses the need and invest in col laborative tools that will reduce the

Reaching out to the employees is indeed the crux behind the success and failure of green practices within an organisation. For far too long, companies that have treaded down the green path have done so in a very ad-hoc manner. Participation of all employees is the key to success of a green initiative within the company and for that to happen, everyone must know that there is such a project that is being undertaken in the company. For that to happen, there needs to be compelling internal communication blitz within the organisation.

The ideal way to start is to create a green policy document that lists down the dos and don’ts promi-nently. Like those corporate missions, vision, value, statements, it is much

VIDEOCONFERENCING

Cut down on travelVideoconferencing is a great way to save inter-office travel, saving money as well as carbon footprint

POLICIES, TRAINING & EDUCATION

Spread the messageYour green efforts will not bear fruits unless you market the whole idea and action points across the organisation

“User buy in is very

essential. We motivate user to minimize printing of documents, to use email instead of sending manual papers.”

“We conducted 3 international

and 15 domestic

meetings in year 2008

& conducted 31

international and 102 domestic

meetings in year 2009 through

video conferencing,

leading to immense

cost savings.”

BASANT CHATURVEDI, HEAD IT, PERFETTI VAN

MELLE INDIA

RAJESH AGARWAL, MANAGER IT, DP JINDAL GROUP

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL



real lifexxx

parameters in it as well that need to be adhered with. The best way would be to ask the vendor to provide all the relevant energy profile of the prod-uct. Also, you should insist on a take back policy that is being offered by bigger vendors, like Dell, HP, IBM, etc. wherein they will take back the prod-uct at the end of the lifecycle.

Green power or renewable energy is the next big frontier for the enter-prises. While, green power might not really be a reality as of now

also look at collaborating with local companies that recycle hardware. As an IT manager, it is important for you to look at the end of lifecycle scenario for all your assets. The ideal way to do it would be to create lifecycle docket for all the servers and the desktop,

thanks to the exorbitant costs, the shift is taking place steadily. Many enterprises are looking at green power, namely solar for succour as India being a tropic country, there is always an abundance of sunshine. Similarly, green buildings are a big hit as well, they help companies to not only reduce the consumption of energy but also ear n money in ter ms o f Cer t i f ied Emiss ion Reductions (CERs).n

that not only carries the IT specs but also the manufacturing and the approximate end date. By doing this, you can track the entire infrastruc-ture more effectively.

Also these days, many hardware vendors are also serious about the take back schemes, be sure to keep that into account when you purchase anything new. The best way to do it is to resolve the issue before-hand, as a lot of hard-ware vendors these days have a take-back policy, wherein they promise to recycle the waste at no or nominal costs. If the IT managers were to insist on the same before making purchases, the whole issue would be solved even before it cropped up.

Finally, look at the small things as well, for instance, all those cardboard cartons that come with each purchase, is there a way to reduce that. What about the scores of unused printouts, can something be done about the same. Remember, that recycle is not a solution, but a process, and that needs to be imbued on an enterprise level.n

Courtesy: IT Next

It is often said that if you believe in something, then wear it on your sleeve. Similarly, you can show your commit-ment to green by taking oath to prop-agate and buy green only. Thus, buy green should be the new mantra. So, whenever a new hardware purchase is made, it should be as green as possible. To start off, be sure to look at the energy conservation merits of the product before making a purchase decision. Look for certifications and labels, for instance Energy Star or Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) is a recognised standard within the industry for displaying an energy efficient hardware. These days, almost all equipments, be it a router or a laptop, each come with a star rating; so make sure that you are well aware of the same.

You could bring about the green in all the enterprise purchases as well. So next time, before sending out a RFP, make sure it has some green

The 3 Rs are most handy mantras that should help and aid any IT manager to go green. They are: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Simply put, look around the IT infrastruc-ture. See if you can reduce it through optimisation and consolidation. Next, rather than indiscriminately chunk-ing away all the unused equipments, see if they can be reused in some manner And finally, all that you cannot reduce or reuse, make sure that it is recycled.

Without doubt, e-waste is one of the biggest challenges faced by the coun-try and don’t add to it by selling your old PCs to the neighbour-hood junkyard. The ideal way is to try and extend the life of your equipment as much as possible and

GREEN PRODUCTS

Buy only greenInsisting on purchasing environment-friendly equipment is the best way to support your green policy

REUSE, REDUCE & RECYCLE

The 3R magic wandWhen it comes to going green, following the triple policy can do wonders for the enterprise

“We intend to switch 5% of our existing

IT power requirements to renewable

energy; we plan to

install solar panels by

2010-2011.”

CHANDRESH DEDHIA, SR IT MANAGER,

FERMENTA BIOTECH

“We have the practice of recycling

waste mainly IT hardware equipment,

communica-tion equip-ment, by

giving it to a Bgovernment

recognized recycler.”

ANJAN DEB, HEAD IT, GE SHIPPING

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL



case study

V i r t u a l i s at i o n i s o f t e n touted as a great way to save money and manage the infrastructure. Even

though the benefits have been listed down time and again, it is not unless one actually virtualises the infrastruc-ture that they become evident. Let me share with you an illustration of how we reaped the fruits of virtualisation at our own enterprise.

First up, Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) has its operations spread across 6 countries and 25 Global Delivery Centres. In most of our processes, the agents access multiple databases and are connected to many CRM suites, which are a combination of market standard solutions on SAAS, premise based & in-house developed packages. In our US centres, we provide end to end solutions to most of our clients.

Over the years, there was a huge increase in the number of servers at HGS, making their management a complex affair. The traditional one-application-per-server deployment philosophy involved multiple servers, many of them not fully utilised. The average server utilisation was low, leaving much of the available capacity unused. Many servers had CPU utilisa-tion rates as low as 20-30%. Needless to add, it also had a considerable cost impact on our IT budget.

There was a strong case for reduc-ing energy consumption by optimising machine performance. The challenge was to ensure that cost reduction due

to data centre energy-efficiency offsets other new purchases such as for hard-ware purchases or other virtualisation management tools. Our emphasis was on increasing equipment utilisation, reducing management and adminis-trative costs, improving the availability of services and resources, and provid-ing a flexible infrastructure that can quickly be adapted to the changing needs of the business.

Over the course of the past one year, we have used virtualisation to consoli-date servers, eliminate hardware costs and reduce power consumption. Since each workload can demand different computing resources, it was impor-tant to measure the needs of each workload and allocate workloads so that the underlying host servers are not overloaded. Every server workload had distinct performance characteris-tics in storage, processing power, and memory requirements that affect suit-ability for virtualisation. So, we decided to approach consolidation in phases.

We started by virtualising and consolidating non-critical and low-priority workloads. Our IT team gained valuable experience with server consolidation tools. Then with more experience (and learning from our little mistakes), we systematically virtualised and consolidated more important workloads until we tackled the most mission-critical applications.

Consolidation of servers through virtualisation has benefits other than cost savings. A traditional server

How Hinduja Global Solutions reaped the benefits while greening the enterpriseSUBRAMANYA C

would have to be taken offline for maintenance or upgrades. With virtu-alisation, all of the server’s consoli-dated workloads can be migrated to a spare server or distributed amongst other servers, and then the original server can be shut down without any disruption to the workloads. Once the work is completed, the workloads can be migrated back to the original hard-ware. Workloads from a failing server can likewise be failed over or restarted on other servers, minimising the effect of hardware problems.

For us at HGS, virtualisation tech-nology not only addressed server under utilisation, but also provided additional benefits such as improved manageability and a reduction of power and cooling costs. Reducing the number of physical servers reduced capital costs, data centre complexity, and administrative costs. Additionally, server virtualisation enhanced busi-ness continuity strategies and business agility. After such a successful imple-mentation of virtualisation technology in our US offices, we are planning to implement it in our India offices in the next six months. Server and storage virtualisation are the priority, as they will provide very high redundancy & make much more business sense. We have begun to believe that there is great virtue in virtualisation.n

Subramanya C is CTO of Hinduja Global Solutions

Courtesy: IT Next

We started by virtualising

and consolidating non-critical

and low-priority workloads.

Virtualisation not only

addressed server under

utilisation, but also provided

additional benefits such as improved

manageability and a

reduction of power and

cooling costs.

fruitsThe

of

GREEN TECHNOLOGY

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The fruits of virtualisation.indd 28 9/24/2010 9:08:27 PM

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