Not Green With Envy; Green Means Go! Article

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Not green with envy; Green means go!

The color green is surely the topic of conversation these days. It’s not just about helping the environment and being green citizens, but also about putting more “greenbacks” back into our challenged economy. The truth is, “greening” your business must be about more than environmental consciousness.

Author: Bryan Ramona

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At the end of the day, the person responsible for the P & L statement is putting the health of his business first and foremost. But that doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice the health of our planet for the sake of our businesses.

In the current state of the economy, so many businesses are worrying more about what it will take to survive and turn a profit than the environmental impact of their actions. As such, decision making has paid minor consideration to carbon footprints, power consumption, or recycled materials. However, there are many things that can contribute to both the betterment of the environment and the betterment of your business including energy efficient power options, virtualization, off-site electronic backups, and off-site hosting.

When choosing hardware, there are often energy efficient power options. Dell, for example, has retooled many of their popular servers to be ENERGY STAR compliant. ENERGY STAR is a joint program between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy which helps save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. The methodology allows for better efficiency of power consumption in the server room, and substantial savings to you in energy costs. Dell is certainly not the only manufacturer embracing the ENERGY STAR message. Cisco is continuing their market leadership in the network core while promoting the benefits of green in the data center. Many others have followed suit, and are producing equipment that meet the ENERGY STAR standards.

While Virtualization may evoke visions of “The Matrix” movie trilogy to some, virtualization is really quite simply taking single servers and conditioning them to host multiple servers simultaneously. Doing this allows businesses to dramatically lessen the number of physical servers they have to run (or purchase) and power. Virtualization combines hardware and software to create an environment that can be observed, managed, and mirrored for higher availability. The driving force in virtualization has historically been VMWare though there are now new challengers to their market dominance including Citrix with their open source-based XenServer and XenDesktop offerings, and now industry giant Microsoft with their latest version of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Microsoft’s offering has been augmented in Server 2008 R2 with similar tools to the VMWare suite, but with a significantly reduction in investment. Through virtualization, businesses are able to create a monetary savings while lessening the consumption of energy.

Electronic backups, or Continuous Data Protection (CDP), are the best and most reliable way to save and restore critical business data. CDP create a nearly real-time backup of data stores which can include critical data on the servers, and/or complete backup of all data in the company including user PCs. This is not considered a “new” innovation, but there is surprise regarding the lack of user adoption. CDP solutions replace the aging tape drives and arrays, which are slower, less reliable, and costly. You still use tape for backups? Well, do you have an 8-track player in your car, a VCR in your home, or use a walkman for your workout? I’m guessing there are a few who would answer “yes” to the question, because most people actually have a CD player in their car, a DVD player at home, or own a digital music player like a Zune or Mp3 player. The reliance on tapes is often a gamble as the media wears out in months and often without warning. Additionally, the tape backup process has to be manually started and monitored which means someone has to be there instead of doing something more productive. These issues are eliminated with CDP! The backups are done in real time on a regular schedule during non-business hours over the Internet. As for the tapes, you save money not having to buy them, or relocate them off-site for storage and archiving. If you are stuck using tapes, you can institute some green best-practices through a company that provides an environmentally responsible alternative to used tape destruction. Echo Tape (www.echo-tape.com) will recycle the tapes and certify the destruction of the data for compliance or peace of mind, and return them completely clean for reuse if you choose. And, as you might expect, Echo has also received accolades for their environmentally friendly processes as well!

Off-site hosting has many benefits as well in a green sense, as there are fewer machines in a firm’s location(s), lower power consumption, and the ability allow users to work from anywhere which lowers travel to and from offices or client sites. There’s also the financial impact, as the SMB marketplace doesn’t have to hire an expensive IT resource, saving salary, benefits, etc. Also, there is less power to pay for, and often smaller phone bills if unified communications is added to the mix. Additionally, there is an accounting benefit at tax time, as in most cases the monthly cost of operating this “off-site” network can be listed for tax purposes as an operating expense rather than a capital expenditure which must be amortized over a period of years. Many of the software providers have helped make this easier, including Microsoft with their new Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). BPOS allows businesses to essentially rent all of the licenses they would need on a monthly basis, and even consume them remotely without having to buy servers, etc. This includes Exchange, SharePoint, and many other tools that would be cost-prohibitive to purchase and run. Not only do you get a tax benefit as above, but organizations can make forays into Unified Communications, Collaboration and more, for a nominal investment.

As you can see, while small business cannot effect massive changes individually, by taking steps each individual organization, combined with the rest, can be a driver of many “green” initiatives. And in doing so, they can also add the sweet green of cash to the bottom line. In this economy, that’s something that many who will be slow to adapt will envy!

About Author

SecurElement delivers a comprehensive blend of essential hardware, software, technical personnel, support and maintenance through the innovative Managed Environment program. Offering unparalleled value at a controlled cost, businesses of any size are able to leverage leading-edge technologies and services that maximize productivity, drive bottom line success and solve critical business issues.

For more information regarding SecurElement solutions, interested parties can contact the sales department at 484.323.1629 or via email at sales@securelement.com.

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Not green with envy; Green means go!