Enterprises look for the business case for green ICT (i.e., IP telephony). Making the Earth a better place to live is a global problem. Enterprises work on a smaller scale and therefore have to locate financial and/or service values, not just reducing the carbon footprint.So let's look at the business questions that relate to green ICT:
Can the financial value drive green ICT projects?
Definitely yes. Reducing the consumption of energy use will translate into reduced energy costs and less energy waste. If your enterprise is also environmentally conscious, then the environmental value cannot be discounted.
Will the green project cost more than a non-green alternative? Most likely there will be an increase in the capital cost that will be offset by the green efficiencies. A 3% to 4% increase in the initial cost can produce a 30+% improvement to the energy efficiency by certifying your data center with Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). You may also have little investment required by changing the power management policies in your organization. Examples are PCs going into standby/hibernate mode or enabling shared printers with low sleep power consumption.
Will greening affect my CAPEX and OPEX?
In some cases the CAPEX will be higher to purchase more energy efficient hardware. Server virtualization will reduce the CAPEX by reducing the number of servers or stabilizing the server farm growth. Reducing the number of servers also reduces the data center real estate cost. The OPEX will be reduced.
Can I benefit from disposing of ICT assets? There is a market for used ICT technologies. Look on eBay. Contact IBM, Dell and HP. There are firms that only deal in ICT resale. Since there is a cost to disposing of electronics, the enterprise may be able to reduce or eliminate the disposal fees working with a reseller.
Are there other inducements for going green?
Yes, from both governments and utilities. There can be tax incentives for investing in energy efficient technologies. Utilities have programs where they will provide rebates, pay for eliminated servers (up to $300 per server) and refunds for purchasing power management software.
Will ICT benefit most from green projects? No necessarily. The Forrester report, "The State of Enterprise IT Budgets:2008" reports that only 11% of 1,118 North American and European IT budget decision makers include energy costs in their budget. If you don't pay for energy directly then there is no incentive or financial value to the green projects for ICT.
How do I look at the CAPEX and OPEX costs?
CAPEX is affected by:
* Asset utilization * The useful life of the asset * Data center and closet space requirements * Maximum power capacity (demand) that can be supported. What if the power requirements exceed the capacity? * Maximum cooling capacity? What if the cooling requirements exceed the cooling capacity? * Government programs that that offer enhanced capital allowance (ECAs) that allow the partial or total write off of green technology investments.
OPEX is affected by: * The cooling requirements. For every 1,000 watts of power to drive the equipment, another 860 watts is required to cool the equipment. * The power bill. * Hardware license fees. Reduce the hardware and reduce the fees. * There may be reduced staffing costs by implementing thin clients and/or reducing the numbers of servers to be supported. NEC has a thin client that supports VoIP. * Penalties that may be incurred based on the polluter-pays principle.
The cost of ICT energy, mainly electricity, continues to rise. It has slowed because of the economy, but once the economy rebounds, expect the cost to increase from 5%to 20% per year depending on your geographic location. Since all ICT hardware will eventually be refreshed, now is the time to make energy efficiency part of the procurement process. Look at the 3 to 4 year energy cost, power and cooling, for the equipment to be procured. Factor in the increased energy rates. Compare the extra CAPEX with the reduced OPEX and then make to selection based on the overall 3 to 4 year bill.
