MAKING A DIFFERENCE….(-:

The IT industry accounts for about 2 per cent of the global carbon emmissions -close to the same as the avation sector-and has an important role to play in the environment agenda.The main issue of the IT is the amount of electricity that the computers use .Data centres in particular have come into focus as heavy consumers of power .This will only grow worse as the amount of data we create increases.

Over and above any green agenda ,chief information officers want to keep their electricity bills down .Some of the solutions are basic ;almost half the energy used at the data centre is to keep it cool .Iceland and Pacific Northwest are becoming popular locations because of their low average temperatures.Other solutions are more technical .Server virtualisation ,which is a software which increases a computers efficiency by allowing several applications to run from a single machine ,has become a hot topic .VMWare ,a pioneer of the technology is now one of the worlds fastest growing companies with expected revenues of $1.3bn for 2007.

Traditionally a server is dedicated to one task,such as running a companys computer email system.However,virtualisation uses less than 20% of its power ,by allowing more functions to be loaded on the same machine ,usage increases to about 80% .One virttualised server can replace 10 old-style servers says Reza Malekzadek of VMWare.Power management is the next growing thing in the green IT -software designed to switch machines off or put them on standby when they are not being used.

IT companies are very keen to promote their green efforts.Any significant it services company will have a carbon footprint calculator to show its clients the energy savings they can make with software and machines .”Virtualisation is an important part of the strategy and will have a positive impact short to mid term ,but it isnt going to fundamentally fix the problem.For most of the companies it is about pure enery savings being spun as a green story”.IT companies need to start thinking about renewable energy sources.Companies also need to take strategic decisions on their IT architecture.Meanwhile at a level of quantum physics,a fundamental rethink of how computers work may provide some future solutions.

“We can pack more transistors into a singl chip and make it run faster,but that makes it hotter and we are getting into a point where we cqant get more computing power because it would melt the chip.Finding a different solution,possibly through photonics,a very high priority for the whole industry”,says Phil Kuekes,computer architect at HP Labs.However,he warns such a solution is atleast 10 years away ….

In the world of fast growing technology and the rapid use of social media ,it is very interesting to see that there is still some level of awareness among people to reserve energy and be considerate towards the environment ! It is uncertain and with the growing level of dependence of people on technology ,we can only hope that the slow and steady process of damaging the environment by the increasing level of carbon etc and issues like global warming are kept in mind by one and all to preserve what we have and focus on damage control…It is a matter of Ethics as well as people’s responsibility towards the environment as every individual is a part of it .