Green IT which has been a buzz word, has now started to become a reality. The government is stepping in to encourage the concept of Green IT and organizations are proactively looking at reducing their carbon footprint. The ministry of power that has already defined energy efficiency standards for many electrical appliances is now looking at extending the same to the IT data centers. The ministry would soon have energy star ratings for data centers in India and may even penalize companies that do not adhere to the energy rating standards.

Avinash Sanholkar, Head-Systems Integration Business and IT infrastructure & Systems, Larsen & Toubro Infotech talked about the myths and reality about Green IT. Sanholkar defined Green IT as the idea that IT organizations can and should implement as practices that are environmentally friendly.

According to a recent research in UK, 20 percent of workers do not turn off their PCs at the end of the day wasting 1.5 billion KWHr of electricity per year in UK alone, equating to CO2 emissions produced from 200,000 small family cars. That brings us to Sanholkar's first myth among users in an organization—‘I should leave my computer on so it can be updated.’ Expecting the system to update all the software patches while they are away, users end up burning huge amount of electricity. Similarly, many users feel that putting the system on screensaver mode would save energy while it is not in use. ‘On the contrary, the system consumes more power in screensaver mode than it does in the standby mode or when its simply left idle without the screensaver,’ explained Sanholkar.

Apart from busting some of these myths at an elementary level, Sanholkar also identified some of the ways in which data center power leakages can be contained. 

"Instead of setting the air cooling at a standard temperature throughout the year, organizations should look at making use of fresh air as much as possible to reduce  the amount of cooling required in certain months of the year," he opined. Another way he suggests one can save electricity is through the use of DC generated heat.  

Energy efficient lighting is another big way to reduce the amount of energy used. "With intelligent lighting enabled through motion sensors, lights are switched on  only when somewhere in there inside the data center. Moreover, energy efficient lightings like CFLs and LEDs can significantly reduce the energy load."

Ageing Data center equipments can also be a power hog and Sanholkar suggests that organizations need to review a three or five years standard for depreciation of  hardware assets. Lastly, the data center staff can be the big enabler of Green IT when equipped with the right knowledge. "While most data center employees are from  the facilities management background or pure IT, there needs to be the mix of the two so that they are more equipped with the knowledge of areas where power can be saved," Sanholkar said.

Sanholkar concluded that organizations should also look at newer power and cooling technologies along with concepts like modular data centers to reduce their carbon  footprint, in order to make their IT truly Green.