A new
report,Green IT: The New Industry Shock
Wave”, by market researcher Gartner has identified
the business network as a significant contributor to organisations’
total environmental footprint.
Gartner defines
environmental footprint as the combination of the
energy consumed by the equipment, the environmental impact of
its production and the impact of its disposal. The analyst is
advising firms interested in combating the problem to adopt a
three-point plan.
“Unlike client
computing, where significant footprint reduction can arise from
simply turning off devices when they are not in use, the network
needs to be ‘always on’ regardless of its utilisation,” explained
Neil Rickard, research vice-president Gartner. “As organisations
can’t turn their network off to reduce their environmental
footprint, they must take simple steps to reduce it.”
Gartner outlined
three steps that it feels can help organisations reduce their
network environmental footprint:
1. Don’t overbuy
Gartner advises organisations not to let themselves be influenced
by vendors into buying networking technologies they don’t require
‘just in case’ or just to protect ‘use it or loose it’ budget
cycles. However adding additional network functionality can
sometimes reduce environmental impact elsewhere in IT.
2. Minimise the number of layers and devices
Gartner says that the blind application of ‘established design
practices’ in networking can result in the over layering of devices
and subsequent performance bottlenecks. Technological advances in
many areas mean that the mountains of networking boxes in most
networks today can be collapsed and replaced with a far smaller
number of devices.
3. Consider power consumption of networking devices
during product selection
In addition to making power efficiency one of the new product
selection criteria, power efficiency can become a factor in
decisions regarding the replacement of aging network equipment. In
the longer term Gartner expects to see the evolution of new more
energy efficient networking technologies such as ‘Energy Efficient
Ethernet’.
“By following
these three steps organisations will be able to
minimise the
environmental impact of their business networks without negatively
affecting the organisation’s network functionality,” added
Rickard. “However, this needs to be part of an ongoing network
strategy, not just performed in isolation as a one-off.”