GREEN COMPUTING - A REVOLUTION TOWARDS A BETTER ENVIRONMENT

1. A n average desktop requires 85 watts just to sit idle, even with monitor off!!! Imagine what would be the total cost if a computer sits idle for 40 hours per week?? 2. Computer use in today’s time accounts for 2% of anthropogenic carbon-dioxide. The amount is expected to double in next four years! 3. Typical PC needs 145watts of energy. Now just calculate if each one of us in class of 60 students have a laptop each, how energy will be required??

WHAT IS GREEN COMPUTING ?

WHAT IS GREEN COMPUTING ALL ABOUT?? “ As the 21 st century belongs to computers, gizmos and electronic items, energy issues will get a serious ring in the coming days, as the public debate on carbon emissions, global warming and climate changes get hotter. Taking into consideration the popular use of information technology, it has lead a revolution of sorts by turning green in a manner no industry has ever done before...”

WHAT IS GREEN COMPUTING?? Computers are genius and in a way has acquired a next-to-God position in the human lives....THEN WHAT IS GREEN COMPUTING?? Answer is:: To have a positive(or least negative) relationship between the physical computer and its impact to the environments in which it moves through cradle to grave.

WHY GREEN COMPUTING? 1.Growing public environmental awareness. 2.Increasing impacts on environmental and human health. 3. Corporate social responsibility.

CRADLE TO GRAVE APPROACH: 1.Full life cycle analysis, not just the output on the desk. 2. Keep a check as and when a computer is born and see if: a. It is born properly(i.e. Manufactured properly). b. It is brought up properly(i.e. Used properly throughout its lifetime) c. It is buried properly after death(i.e. Disposed and reallocated properly with utmost attention and care).

FACE IT..!!! Average desktop computer requires chemicals and fossils 10 times its weight. Lead and Zinc Leachate for the manufacture of CRT. As if this was not enough; 4-12 mg mercury/ unit for the manufacture of LCD with liquid crystals (halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons).

UNUSED HOME PC’s AND DESKTOPS Electricity consumption for home PC’s etc: 120 W (for CRT + CPU).

THE STORY OF DATA CENTERS: They use 50 times the energy per square foot as an office. Main reason behind energy consumption. The rate of energy consumption doubling every five years. Solutions are too costly to be implemented.

CHILLING DATA...! To keep servers at right temperature, companies rely on air conditioning. The more powerful the air, the stronger air conditioner needed to keep server from overheating. The energy consumed in this act, accounts for 10% of total IT costs, which will reach 50% in a matter of just a decade.

PRINTER AND ENERGY..!! We need papers, so we cut the poor trees and harm the environment. Also, do not forget the energy a printer while working and even when it is sitting idle..!

IT products usually have short life expectancy (usually 2-4 years). The toxins used in manufacturing causes contamination. Thus, human health risks! Lead, barium, chromium to name a few.

LET US TACKLE THE PROBLEMS AND THUS SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT..! !!!

VIRTUALISATION Run two or more logical computer systems on one set of physical hardware. Hence power and cooling constraints will be greatly reduced. The idea is perfect to used and implemented in Data Centers

POWER MANGEMENT AND SUPPLIES.. The 80 plus power programme is very efficient. Saves the machines from consuming more power than required. It is a certification given to the PSU’ s.

DISPLAYS: LED’s used in the monitors instead of cold cathode fluorescent bulb to reduce the power consumption. Such LCD displays use three times less energy when active and ten times less energy when in sleep mode.

1. Donate or give your old machine to charity. 2. Dismantle the system in such a way that useful constituent materials can be nicely extracted. 3. Salvage or recycle the outdated systems through municipal centres etc. 4. Recycling etc leads to lesser harmful products emitted. 5. Obsolete computer systems are a very good source of raw materials, if treated properly. 6. Individuals looking for recycling of their systems, can search on the internet nad look out for organisations working for this.

STORAGE We can use high valued storage capacity hard drive (3.5”) that gives the best performance so that we need not need more number of devices to be attached. The second option is to make use of 2.5” laptop hard drive that consume less power and give better performance. Thirdly (but the best thing) is to use SSD’s I.E. solid state disks that consume one third of power than the 2.5”.

TELECOMMUTING The application of telecommuting and tele presence technologies are often implemented in green computing initiatives. Advantages include increased worker satisfaction and decreased green house gas emissions (that include travel, office space, heat emission etc.)

TELECOMMUTING Another benefit includes, for those people who stay at a distance can very well talk or communicate. Hence enormous time and cost benefits. One such example includes the latest VoIP(voice over IP) technology.

TERMINAL SERVERS Users connect to the servers and all the computing is done at the server level. When combined with the server, the different clients help reduce energy by one eighth of the total energy consumption. Hence it is very much beneficial for the environment because a lot of energy, cost etc are saved. Examples include Terminal Servers for Windows, Aqua Connect Terminal Server for Mac. Etc.

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE TERMINAL SERVERS.

Application -AN OVERVIEW

1. BLACKLE

BLACKLE A search engine powered by Google Search. But why Blackle in black? Because when the screen is in white (blank or with words), it consumes- 79 W. But when screen is black energy consumed- 54 W. 750 MW of energy would be saved if we all switch to Blackle.

2. FIT PC: A TINY PC

FIT PC: A TINY PC It is the size of a paperback and fully silent. Runs Windows or Linux perfectly. Draws only 5 W of energy. If compared with an average desktop, it consumes the same energy in the entire day as the former draws in an hour. It is the best for those who have to use the machine for the entire day.

3. THE ZONBU COMPUTER A new energy efficient PC. Consumes one third of the energy as compared to that of a light bulb. It runs on Linux operating system. Uses 1.2 GH of processor. Cost US$ 99.

4. SUN RAY THIN CLIENT

SUN RAY THIN CLIENT Developed by Sun Microsystems. Consumes only 4-6 watts of energy. All the heavy computations are carried out by the server. Very well suited for cost-sensitive environments such as call centers, service providers etc.

THE ASUS EEE PC’s Small size. Very low PC power consumed. Uses flash memory. Weighs less than a kilogram. Has an inbuilt Wi-Fi too. Runs Linux too.

FUTURE..?? As the time passes by, the demand for gadgets and gizmos will increase, not decrease. Hence more carbon emissions and thus “GLOBAL WARMING”. Today's stats indicate: computer systems one of the major cause of global warming. So let us turn the IT industry before it gets too late.

FUTURE..?? The various organisations worldwide are working towards making the environment greener. A perfect plan towards Green IT should include the machines and systems mentioned before. Let us all try some amount of the energy by discarding the old gadgets and switching to newer ones.

1.Now a days it has become important for the businesses to act in an environmentally responsible manner. 2. The companies should now compete in a “green market”. 3. They must understand that a certain amount at the cost of the environment is no big issue, and that they must not hesitate in cutting down works that include carbon emissions beyond a certain point.

A fresh approach towards It is needed, starting from the basic hardware to architectural standards. Thank god, we still have companies like IBM to take up the responsibility of making a greener environment. They are working towards bringing out solutions to the problems and making their customers understand the associated problems.