The Greening of IT: How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment

Book description

How IT Can Drive Immense Business Value by “Going Green”

  • For CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, and IT leaders: The green IT business case and best practices for making it happen

  • Timely help for companies facing rising energy costs, new government rules, and growing public concern

  • Powerful new insights from IBM’s breakthrough $1 billion green computing initiative

  • Chances are your enterprise IT organization has a significant carbon footprint. In an era of unpredictable energy costs, reducing energy usage throughout your data centers and IT infrastructure represents a powerful cost-cutting opportunity. Now, a top green IT expert shows business and IT leaders how to drive powerful business value by improving IT’s environmental performance.

    Drawing on leading-edge experience, John Lamb helps you realistically assess the business case for green IT, set priorities, and overcome the internal and external challenges to making it work. He offers proven solutions for issues ranging from organizational obstacles to executive motivation and discusses crucial issues ranging from utility rate incentives to metrics. Along the way, you’ll discover energy-saving opportunities—from virtualization and consolidation to cloud and grid computing—and solutions that will improve business flexibility as they reduce environmental impact.

    Lamb presents case studies, checklists, and more—all the practical guidance you need to drive maximum bottom-line value from your green IT initiative.

    Preface     xxiii

    Acknowledgments     xxix

    About the Author     xxxiii

    Chapter 1: The Importance of Green IT     1

    Chapter 2: The Basics of Green IT     15

    Chapter 3: Collaboration Is Key for Green IT     39

    Chapter 4: The Government’s Role–Regulation and EPA Activity     55

    Chapter 5: The Magic of “Incentive”–The Role of Electric Utilities     69

    Chapter 6: A Most-Significant Step–“Virtualizing” Your IT Systems     85

    Chapter 7: The Need for Standard IT Energy-Use Metrics     109

    Chapter 8: What About Chillers, Cooling Tower Fans, and All That Cooling Equipment Usually Ignored by IT?     129

    Chapter 9: Green IT Case Studies for Energy Utilities     147

    Chapter 10: Green IT Case Studies for Universities and a Large Company     157

    Chapter 11: Worldwide Green IT Case Studies     183

    Chapter 12: The Future of Green IT for Corporations     205

    Appendix A: Green IT Checklist and Recommendations     215

    Appendix B: Green IT and Cloud Computing     237

    Appendix C: Comparison of Different Power-Generation Methods     251

    Appendix D: Worldwide Electricity Costs for IT with Projections     281

    Glossary     289

    Bibliography     301

    Index     305

    Product information

    • Title: The Greening of IT: How Companies Can Make a Difference for the Environment
    • Author(s): John Lamb
    • Release date: April 2009
    • Publisher(s): IBM Press
    • ISBN: None