The keynote session at CMG 08 was held given by Steve Sams from IBM and was called “Think Green – How Green Computing Can Pay for Itself”. Steve is IBM’s vice president for site and facilities services worldwide and he presented a good case that what is good for the environment is also good for the bottom line.
Steve started with some general introduction on “green” computing. For those who are involved in this field there was probably not a lot of new information, but I personally am just getting involved in this area and found it to be a good introduction. One statistic that I hadn’t heard before is that power used for IT is about 2% of the total power used worldwide, and that this is about how much energy the entire airline industry uses. However, power usage for IT is doubling every 4 to 5 years. This has a major impact to both the costs for an organization to run their IT and also has a significant impact on the environment.
Steve went on to describe some of the cost savings they have seen working with some of their major clients. A few points of interest:
- In one large client the IT costs were only 25% of the total costs to run a datacentre. The remaining 75% were for power, cooling, and floor space. Steve noted that most datacentres are not built in built up areas and that floor space costs were typically very low.
- It is possible to reduce the total operational costs of a datacentre 40-50% and extend the life of your current facilities
- The operational costs of running a datacentre are typically 3 to 5 times the capital costs, and that much of the operational costs is energy related.
Steve mentioned a few IBM products and service, but in my opinion did not step over the CMG policy of no “sales” pitches. Steve provided a few URLs for more info:
Overall a good kick off to the conference and a good introduction to green computing.