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Expert's Opinion
Judith Tracy
Program Director of Infrastructure Solutions for General Business
As Program Director of Infrastructure Solutions for General Business at IBM, Judith is responsible for the development of marketing programs, solutions for mid-size customers , and customer relationships for Virtualization and Green IT. Ms. Tracy is currently working with the author of "Green IT for Dummies," Carol Baroudi, on an IBM version of the book that will be available this summer. She has been with IBM for over 10 years and has specialized in infrastructure solutions.
SEE ALSO: infoBOOM! Editor Opinion
Jim Malone
June 10, 2009
Going Virtual, Going Green
Virtualization has been around for quite some time, but there’s no question the heat has been turned up as this concept spreads across multiple IT technologies. Why now? There are many reasons but two stand out:
- The need to simplify IT
- The realization that green is good for business
Simple is Better
On the first point, it’s dawning on many that IT has become too complex for the good of most businesses. It requires its own specialized “experts” who talk their own language and leave senior management discomfited and befuddled about what’s going on in server rooms and data centers.
Virtualization offers business and IT a commonality of purpose around doing more for less:
- Less hardware
- Reduced space requirements
- Lower overhead for system administration
- Reduced energy consumption
Case in Point
Nicholas & Company, a 500-employee food distributor based in Salt Lake City, opted to increase its computing capabilities while holding energy costs level by virtualizing applications, and consolidating its servers and storage. Using IBM Bladecenter H and VMware, the company is consolidating 1,000 physical servers onto 20 newer systems. In 18 months, when this transformation is complete, the utilization rates of the servers are expected to increase from the current average of 3 percent per server to nearly 80 percent. As that company and others are realizing, virtualization can dramatically improve a company’s environmental profile and support “Green” initiatives.
Costs Driving Green Push
Companies are discovering they can reduce carbon footprint while saving costs. We surveyed 1,000 midsized businesses and found that controlling costs are the primary driver behind 11 “Green IT” initiatives. Key benefits they are seeking are: decreased electricity use, decreased consumables use, decreased future operational expenses or investments and realizing credits or rebates from local utilities and governments. About 25 percent of those surveyed have already completed some form of virtualization or storage consolidation; another 50 percent are planning these for the next 12 months.
Let me know what you’re doing about virtualization, or the obstacles standing in your way.
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IBM Ireland Marketing
I wanted to share with you a link to IBM Infrastructure Services blog started by IBM in Ireland which includes virtualization as a key topic:
http://ibminfrastructureservices.wordpress.com/
As Program Director of Infrastructure Solutions for General Business at IBM, Judith is responsible for the development of marketing programs, solutions for mid-size customers , and customer relationships for Virtualization and Green IT. Ms. Tracy is currently working with the author of "Green IT for Dummies," Carol Baroudi, on an IBM version of the book that will be available this summer. She has been with IBM for over 10 years and has specialized in infrastructure solutions.
The best way to keep the dollars in the IT budget is to have a good business case on how to spend the dollars to improve the business. We have found that mid-size businesses spend about 80% of their IT budget just to keep their IT infrastructure up and running. By investing in technologies like virtualization that reduce operational costs including management and administrative costs as well as reducing down time - IT can use their budget to invest in new technologies and new applications that will better align IT with the strategic goals of the company. By reducing costs there is also an opportunity to invest in remote conferencing and telecommuting strategies to make an even bigger impact on the environment as well as enhance and improve productivity.
For more information there is a study that was commissioned by IBM and conducted by Info-Tech Research Group to explore how mid-size organizations are embracing Green IT initiatives in an effort to create sustainable business practices. More than 1,000 IT and business professionals and decision-makers around the globe were asked to describe their adoption state across four key areas—virtualization and consolidation, energy efficiency, travel reduction, and asset disposal—as well as their organizations' outlook, attitudes, and reasons for adoption. http://www.ibm.com/businesscenter/smb/us/en/greenit
Publishing exec at IDG. Former posts included stints as CEO of Network World and Computerworld. Currently publisher emeritus at CIO Magazine where I focus on business alignment, budget and social media issues facing IT executives. Very much enjoy running, photography and baseball.
Judith, when I speak with chief information officers about "green" initiatives I hear often this lament: "we are frustrated because while our "green" IT initiatives (particularly the ones you mention above....less hardware, reduced space, lower sys admin costs and reduced energy consumption) save our company real dollars, dollars that IT spent to make a reality, we have a very hard time keeping those saved dollars in the IT opex budget. More often than not, the facilities department gets the credit". My question: what advice would you give CIOs and senior IT execs on how they can work more effectively with facilities to keep those dollars in the IT budget?
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