Managed Services Goes Green
Green IT does more than help the environment. It saves resources and puts money on your bottom line.
By Charles Weaver
When people hear the phrase “green IT,” it evokes many different reactions. For some, it means doing something good for the environment; for others, it may have a more political connotation. Recently, green IT has become a topic of conversation within data centers, focused on the conservation of power. Over the last six to 12 months, however, green IT has gone beyond the data center and now includes a variety of conservation and cost-saving practices. Many of these practices can be directly traced to managed IT services and managed services providers. For this reason, the convergence of green IT and managed IT services is perhaps one of the most important issues to come out of the IT industry in the last decade.
Green IT is a unifying idea–it is one of the first grass roots concepts that makes people feel good and saves money and resources. Both the end-user community and the IT channel are engaging in green IT discussions on a global level. Politically, green IT is already a hot topic. Governments throughout the world are enacting legislation to promote green IT practices such as alternative energy sources for data centers, lower energy consumption hardware standards, and other conservation policies.
But what is perhaps the most innovative and exciting concept surrounding green IT is the economic benefit derived from it. Previously, “going green” had a somewhat negative connotation. It used to mean spending money to accomplish an objective that had little perceived value beyond its environmental impact. Today, green IT not only benefits the environment and efforts to conserve, but it can also save businesses money and valuable resources.
For example, while data centers garner the majority of attention surrounding green IT, the simple act of shutting off a PC after hours and on weekends can quickly add up. In some case studies currently under way companies are experiencing an average cost savings of $17 per PC per month. Multiply that by an office full of PCs and a company can really start to save. Advancements in remote management technologies are allowing MSPs to help small and midsize businesses realize these savings.
Another commonly overlooked example is the truck roll–companies that used to have break-fix business models will know what I’m talking about. Each time a client calls with a problem, the natural reaction would be to dispatch someone in a vehicle, regardless if the problem could be resolved remotely. Green IT standards are now focusing on simple remote monitoring and management practices to solve problems. And by eliminating truck rolls, MSPs can reduce harmful ozone emissions while allowing their own services to scale.
In the end, green IT must be a conscious choice made by individuals and companies. For some, the environmental benefits will be enough. For others, the economic benefits will be dispositive. But no matter where you stand, by adopting green IT best practices the chances are good that you will not only do some good for the environment, but will save money for your company. All in all, that’s a pretty good deal.
CHARLES WEAVER is the president of the MSPAlliance (the International Association of Managed Service Providers), with more than 7,000 members worldwide. He speaks throughout the world on the topic of managed services and is also the author of The Art of Managed Services.
