Being "green" might be the latest trend in business, but
simply buyingenvironmentally friendlystorage
products does not mean you are doing all you can to help the
environment. Indeed, you could be doing more harm than good.
Assessing how you can reduce your carbon footprint needs to go much
deeper than that, and must run through both the procurement and
lifecycle of a product.
Buying green
There are many environmentally friendly products, from cars to
light bulbs. Take the Toyota Prius as an example. Marketed as a
green vehicle, buying it is just one step to doing your bit - the
usage of the car is more important. Buying three Prius does not
make you three times more environmentally friendly either!
If you are really looking to go green, assessing the procurement
process of storage products needs to be your first priority.
Manufacturing of kit can account for a large percentage of its
carbon emissions. So if you are simply buying a new storage product
because it is labelled "green" and not because you need the
additional capabilities or capacity, not only is this an
unnecessary expense, it also means more carbon emissions are
produced in the process.
Understanding this aspect of the product lifecycle is therefore
extremely important in assessing the green credentials of a
purchase.
Efficiency = green
Where real savings can be made is in the use of storage devices.
Efficiency and being green go hand in hand, and what many people
fail to realise is that just by being more efficient, carbon
emissions attributed to a product can be reduced.
The deployment of a product is therefore just as important as
buying something labelled as green. If you buy an environmentally
friendly car and then make unnecessary journeys to drive one mile
down the road every day, it is not being used in the most efficient
or environmentally friendly way.
This can be applied to data storage strategies. Using the right
piece of kit for different requirements will ensure the storage
lifecycle is made as efficient as possible. For example, writing to
the densest possible Raid array for critical storage needs will
ensure capacity is maximised and that additional products are not
purchased unnecessarily. This will go some way to reducing
emissions from manufacturing as a result.
For back-up purposes, using disc with virtual tape library
capability will improve efficiencies and make the best use of
space.
When archiving, the greenest option is tape as it uses less
power and produces a lower heat output. It is especially efficient
when storing data which does not need to be accessed frequently. In
contrast, using disc for archiving does more harm to the
environment as discs are kept spinning constantly, churning out
more heat and using more power.
Putting things into perspective
No one storage solution is going to make you green, but if
purchases are made sensibly and products used in the right way, it
could make you greener.
● Overland Storage is exhibiting on stand 330 at Storage Expo
2007