Governing IT in a Green World

© 2008 Jupitermedia Corporation

Governing IT in a Green World

July 9, 20082:00pm EDT, 11:00am PDT

George Spafford, Principal ConsultantPepperweed Consulting, LLC“Optimizing The Business Value of IT”http://www.pepperweed.com


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Main Presentation


Agenda

• What does “Green IT” mean anyways• Supporting the Organization’s Green Strategy• Potential Risks• Energy and Economics• Understanding Costs• Codify Management’s Intent• Process Opportunities • Technical Opportunities• Continuous Improvement


Green IT

• Being “green” means to minimize negative environmental impacts and maximize positive impacts

• IT is a key stakeholder for a variety of reasons– Energy usage (our focus today)– E-Waste– IT services that advance the organization

• From a governance perspective– Need proper management practices in place– IT’s role – create and protect value– Why are we doing this? What are our objectives? How can we help?

• “Green IT” is becoming a buzzword to sell products and services– Gartner terms it “greenwashing”– A lot of conflicting messages and bogus claims


Supporting the Organization’s Green Strategy

• The environment and being “green” is an organizational issue– Need to support the goals of the organization and it’s investors /

owners– Protect and Enhance Brand Reputation

• “We recycle our computers.”• “We use virtual meetings to cut down on travel”

– Manage Risks– Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)– Economics – there can be very real benefits

• IT is part of a system– Need the proper context– Management ecological impacts is a necessary condition


Potential Risks

• Increasing Operating Expenses– Travel and logistics costs are skyrocketing– Increasing Energy Costs

• Running Out of Power– Some data centers are being told the grid can’t supply more

electricity

• Global Warming in General– The cause isn’t the issue

• Damage to the Brand• Threat of Increased Regulation• IT Unable to Support the Business• Competition Solving Issues First


Primary Issue – Energy and Information Technologies

IT needs electricity to operate!


Energy and Economics (1)• Simple Supply and Demand

• Demand world-wide is increasing– 50% by 2030

• As demand increases, so do prices– Oil cost $113 to $1861

– Oil was $142/bbl on 7/1/082

– Ceteris Paribus

• Equilibrium at Q0,P0

• Jevon’s Paradox– As technology improved, rather than

fall, consumption increased due to a drop in prices

– My take - The lower the cost, the more we waste

1. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/business/25energy.php2. http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/

Pric

e

Quantity

P0

Q0

P2

P1

Q2 Q1


Energy and Economics (2)

• What is happening is that the whole demand curve is moving out as demand increases but consumers want it at the same price

• Supply hasn’t caught up and prices are going up

• If the US will not pay $142/bbl then another country will

• We are tightly coupled to oil as an economy and as the price of oil goes up, so does the price of substitutes

• Coal is going up too– Fires half of US power plants– Coal has doubled in last year– Result – Electricity costs have increased

29%1

• So … what does this do to operating budgets?

1. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-06-15-power-prices-rising_N.htm

Pric

eQuantity

Supply

Old Demand

P0

Q0

P1

Q1

New Demand


Electricity and the Environment

• Obviously, IT runs on electricity• Demands are increasing• Produced in large scale predominantly via

– Coal– Hydroelectric– Natural Gas– Nuclear

• Pros and Cons with Each– Coal burning plants have come a long way in terms of lowering

emissions• Carbon Footprint

– Amount of CO2 released into the environment by humans– Carbon Trading – market mechanism that economically incents an

organizations to buy and sell carbon credits– Carbon tax – government taxes organizations based on CO2 released


Data Centers and Electricity

• In the US, data centers consumed 1.5% of all electricity in 2006 and growing at 12%1

• Data centers forecasted to surpass airlines in terms of CO2 emissions in 2020 (due to electricity consumed)– An increase of four fold2

• Studies like these increase visibility– Brand impacts– Potential for regulation

• A very certain outcome is increased operating costs if left unmanaged

1. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/saveenergynow/pdfs/doe_data_centers_presentation.pdf

2. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/data-centers-are-becoming-big-polluters-study-finds/


Understanding Costs

• Servers can be utilized as little as 6% on average1

• Data centers can run at 56% of peak performance1

• One watt of IT power used requires about one watt of cooling

• What about your bill? Do you know what it is for IT?

• Cost = (Watts x Hours Used) / 1000 x Cost/KW Hr• Problem is that that there are inefficiencies

1. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/data-centers-are-becoming-big-polluters-study-finds/


Power Consumption

• Chiller 33%• IT Equipment 30%• UPS 18%• Computer Room Air

Conditioning (CRAC) 9%• Power Distribution

Units (PDUs) 5%• Humidifiers 3%• Switch / generator 1%• Lighting 1%

http://www.thegreengrid.org/gg_content/Green_Grid_Guidelines_WP.pdf

Notice how only 30% of each watt actually goes to the IT Equipment.

Out of every 10 watts sent to the data center, only 3 wind up being used by IT equipment.

42% goes to cooling

24% goes to power


Where to Begin


Codify Management’s Intent (1)

• Understand the organization’s position on the environment and corporate social responsibility

• Understand the current internal IT situation by assessing– The Data Center– Front Office

• Develop policies identifying what is to be done for IT to support the organization– Create and Protect Value– Short- and Long-Term


Codify Management’s Intent (2)

• Develop enterprise standards that factor green requirements in

• Revise processes• Implement metrics• Revise Job Descriptions

– Define responsibilities and targets– Tie compensation to targets

• Set the Tone From the Top


Engage Stakeholders

• Engage stakeholders to understand their perspectives• Implement teams, or formally delegate to existing teams• Ensure the teams are exposed to new ideas

– Publications– Training– Conferences

• Internal Examples– Build bridges with facilities if separate from IT– Accounting– Engineering

• External Examples– Your energy utility– Federal, state and municipal programs


Management Opportunities (1)

• Government initiatives– Stay abreast of them– Department of Energy– Environmental Protection Agency

• Incentives from utilities– Talk to your sales / account representative – they may have incentives

for the retirement of servers, etc.– PG&E is offering $150-300 for each server removed due to virtualization

• Data Center Strategy– Improve existing– Build New– Outsource– Virtualized Data Centers

• Electricity is 3-4x more expensive in CT than in Idaho• What about peak demand times in NYC vs off-peak in Tokyo?


Management Opportunities (2)• Review ITIL Capacity Management

– Capacity Management is tasked with providing IT resources to the organization in a cost-effective manner.

– Need to factor green IT concepts in• Planning for the Future• Tracking Existing Use

– Need formal modeling of capacity requirements vs. ballpark estimates– Too much capacity leads to inefficient power utilization

• True for UPSes, CRACs, etc– Conduct Annual Power Assessments

• Review how power is being used• Look for opportunities to improve

• Project Management– Require that green requirements be identified in project requests– Have green requirements reviewed approved appropriately


Management Opportunities (3)

• Purchasing / Hardware Engineering– Set minimum standards at a policy level and identify standards for

purchasing of new hardware, facilities, etc.

• Financial Management– Understand the electrical power costs to IT

• May need to be broken out from a larger site bill

– Track power consumption relative to IT services rendered

– What business units are consuming what amount of power totaling what cost?

• Service Design– Factor in energy costs (direct and indirect) as part of the design and

approval decision making


Management Opportunities (4)• Leverage and Trend Metrics

– Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)

• PUE = Total Data Center Facility Power / IT Equipment Power• Total Data Center Power includes everything – PDUs,

CRACs, IT Equipment, etc.• IT Equipment Power is just computers, switches, network

gear, etc.• Can use to calculate demands

– If PUE = 3 and new devices is 100 watts then total energy demands could be 3 x 100 = 300 watts total

– Data Center Effectiveness (DCE)

• 1/PUE or IT Equipment Power / Total Data Center Power• Just a reciprocal but shows what amount of total power is

being used by the IT equipment

http://www.thegreengrid.org/gg_content/Green_Grid_Guidelines_WP.pdf


High-Level Technical Opportunities

On 7/21/08 – “Implementing a Green Data Center”

Will be more technical and focused on opportunities within the data center to reduce energy consumption

http://solutions.internet.com/4991_default


Technical Opportunities (1)

• 1 Watt IT Equipment Saved Reduces Cooling 1 Watt– Savings on IT equipment can be a 2-for-1 gain– Converse is true too – for each watt of IT equipment added, need to factor in

a watt for cooling (other areas need to be considered as well such as UPSes, PDUs, etc.)

• Capital vs. Operating Expense– Some cultures “run until things break”

• Some systems are 10-20 years old– Older technology tends to be less energy efficient– True for

• Servers – Can have dramatic savings considering low average computational utilization to begin with

• Desktops – Reductions of over 50%• UPSes – reduction of power loss of up to 70% over 15 year old systems1

• Chillers –Reductions of 50%1

• Etc.

1 The Green Data Center: Steps for the Journey. http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4413.html



• Old Desktop– 200 watt PC + 80 watt 17” monitor = 280 watts– 280 watts x 8,760 hrs/year (24x265) /1000 = 2,452 kw/hr per year– 2,452 kw/hr x 9.53 cents/kw/hr = $233.51/year to operate– Three years = $700.52– Doesn’t include peripherals or cooling impacts

• Could easily grow to be $300-600/year

• New Desktop– 100 watt PC + 30 watt for 17” LCD = 130 watts– $108.41/year to operate– Three years = $325.24

• Look at the age of systems and factor in the cost of powering them along with traditional support costs of aging technology



• Telecommuting and remote collaboration– Let employees, vendors and customers work from home vs.

travel

• Review Thin Clients– Cut down on desktop power consumption– Better manage clients

• Consolidate where possible– Some servers are utilized only 6% of potential but are still

consuming power via dedicated power supplies



• Virtualization– Easy to add/remove servers– Only power up what is needed– Virtualize hosts or even the data center

• Data Center Design– Set the temperature no colder than it needs to be (IBM says 72F /

22C)– Clean out and organize cables under the raised floor– Layout – use hot & cold aisles– Properly layout cold tiles– Close rack openings– Insulation– Replace old PDUs, Chillers, CRACs, etc.



• Use Power Management Features– Studies have shown that usage fluctuates on many systems but

power consumption does not – this tells us that existing power management features are not being used

– Proper configuration can reduce power demands by 20%1

• Understand Redundancy Energy Costs of redundancy– Redundant (N+1) systems – spares are consuming power if on

– Sometimes hot backups are needed, but not always

– Review if clusters / hot spares are always needed

• Monitor Power Use– Monitor power to the rack level if possible

– Track and trend over time

1. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=295302



• Distributed Generation / On-site Generation– Augmentation - Supply peak power– Cover power loss from utility– Re-sell power to the utility– Technologies

• Geothermal– Chena hot springs dropped kw/hr cost from $0.30 to $0.06

• Hydroelectric• Solar power• Wind Turbines


Continuous Improvement• The first step is only the

beginning of a journey• Needs will change as

technologies and the world changes

• Leverage metrics where possible to track status

• Conduct quarterly reviews of progress

• Maintain the tone from the top• Formally schedule reviews to

assess the current state and look for new opportunities

Where do we want to be?

Where are we now?

How do we get to where we want to be?

How do we monitorProgress?

Vision and Objectives

Audits / Assessments

Process Improvement(Leverage Best Practices)

Metrics and Critical Success Factors


Vik ChandraProgram Director - IBM Software Group Green

Market Management


Software Enabled Opportunities for Energy Efficiency

Infrastructure

Workloads

People

Reduce use of paper by enabling business processes to use eForms and images

Shift workloads to underutilized servers to reduce energy and floor space needs

Reduce business travel by using online collaboration

Reduce commuting with online collaboration and increasing work from home

Schedule execution of workload to off-peak hours to use lower cost energy

Optimize business processes to reduce energy footprint and costs of operations

Turn the power down when work (transactions) slows down

Optimize applications to reduce needed IT resources and energy

Optimize HVAC for hot spots to reduce energy consumption

Compress your data to lower storage and server needs

Consolidate and Virtualize to eliminate floor space and compute infrastructure

Comply with environmental regulatory requirements


Cutting Costs and Carbon Emissions with IBM Software

42% of IBM’s employees do not regularly come into an office saving $100M annually in real estate costs

A distributor saved $70k on one training event by avoiding travel

A financial institution achieved data compression rates of 83%

A university achieved 40 to 50% reduction in floor space, 30% reduction in power and cooling costs

A financial services company reduced average process cycle time by 50%

IBM is consolidating 3900 33 System z servers providing an 80% annual energy savings

Infrastructure

Workloads

People


Resources (1)• Mike Ebbers, Alvin Galea, Marc Tu Duy Khiem, and Michael Schaefer. “The Green Data Center –

Steps for the Journey” RedPaper Draft (June 2, 2008 Draft)http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4413.html

• US Department of Energy – Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energyhttp://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/saveenergynow/partnering_data_centers.html

• DOE – Creating Energy Efficient Data Centershttp://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/saveenergynow/pdfs/doe_data_centers_presentation.pdf

• American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers – Technical Committee 9.9http://tc99.ashraetcs.org/

• Creating the Green Data Center http://www.adc.com

• The Data Center Journalhttp://datacenterjournal.com/

• The Green Gridhttp://www.thegreengrid.org

• Uptime Institutehttp://www.uptimeinstitute.org/


Resources (2)• Simon Mingay. “10 Key Elements of a ‘Green IT’ Strategy”. Gartner. December 2007.

• Energy Information Administration. Electric Power Monthlyhttp://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html

• National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Programhttp://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/saveenergynow/pdfs/national_data_center_fact_sheet.pdf

• Lawrence Berkeley National Labs – Data Center Best Practiceshttp://hightech.lbl.gov/datacenters.html

• Kenneth G Brill. “Data Center Energy Efficiency and Productivity”. The Uptime Institute. 2007.http://www.cio.co.uk/whitepapers/index.cfm?whitepaperid=4241

• Cogeneration & On-site Power Productionhttp://www.cospp.com

• US Department of Energy – Distributed Energy Programhttp://www.eere.energy.gov/de/

• Chena Hot Springs Geothermal Projecthttp://www.yourownpower.com/

• State of California – Distributed Energy Resource Guidehttp://www.energy.ca.gov/distgen/index.html


Thank you for the privilege of facilitating this webcast

George [email protected]

http://www.pepperweed.com

The News - Archive, RSS and Email Subscription Instructionshttp://www.spaffordconsulting.com/dailynews.html

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Questions?


Follow up Webcast

On 7/21/08 – “Implementing a Green Data Center”

Will be more technical and focused on opportunities within the data center to reduce energy consumption

http://solutions.internet.com/4991_default


Thank you for attending

If you have any further questions, e-mail [email protected]

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Governing IT in a Green World