Green IT - any colour as long as it's in the black

In these rather challenging times, can we afford to forget about the need for Green IT and sustainability? No, of course we can't, but it's worth while reminding ourselves what is likely to succeed. If a Green IT initiative is proposed as a way of spending money to look good, but without clearly identified savings for the business, it doesn't stand much of a chance in today's climate.

Fortunately, there are plenty of Green IT initiatives which also produce cost savings, leaving the business "in the black". Many of us are already aware of the possibilities in the data centre: server consolidation to increase utilisation way above the industry average of 15%; virtualisation to increase effective capacity for application loads; cold aisle containment to optimise airflow and reduce cooling costs.

On the laptop and desktop side, why not review replacement and refurbishment policies to identify savings? Many of these policies have not changed in years and implementing a policy change is one of the easiest ways of making a step change in Green IT.

Best of all, why not consider the wider context of how Green IT can be Green for the business? It's estimated that around 2% of emissions for a typical company relate to IT; the other 98% are not IT-related. Proactive involvement of IT in Green business issues has enormous potential.

Some thoughts about how IT can help:

• Web 2.0 technology to reduce employees' travel needs
• In some places, there are still employees printing material so they can type it back into other systems or applications. This really ought to stop and appropriate IT support can make sure it does.
• Better interaction of purchasing and invoicing systems with suppliers and customers can reduce paper usage, reduce delay times, give competitive advantage

But these are just a few possibilities - there are plenty more. So, I suggest you get going with your Green IT that's in the black.

Mean IT - what's it mean?

Well, it means cutting your costs of course: mean to save money; parsimonious so as to butter parsnips; careful to cut costs; extreme endeavours to even out expenditure.

But we need to be careful when we're playing Scrooge. He himself went through a number of different experiences before he got the point. The Ghost of Christmas Past wasn't enough; the Ghost of Christmas Present wasn't enough; it was only with the visitation of the Ghost of Christmas Future that he finally realised what he needed to do.

What's the parallel with the current day hard-pressed CIO? Well, it's all too easy to look at only one way of saving money: cut the budget - that will work; reduce TCO - that will make me look good; eliminate development - we can make do with the applications we have and no-one will notice.

This is slash and burn thinking. It's not Mean IT, it's Silly IT.

We need to think again - to look at the problem from a number of different angles - to examine things through a number of different lenses. So, we can think of various viewpoints that we might optimise:

• Total cost of ownership


• Finance


• Service portfolio


• Service levels


• Service improvement


• Innovation

It's the power of thinking through all of these different views, these "lenses", that means that Mean IT will deliver dividends.

The Ghosts of Christmas had a point: if Mean IT is to mean anything, we need to think of cutting costs from a number of different points of view.

Are you considering these points of view - right now?