The Greener Side of Networking: Why Aren’t We Studying These Effects Further?

by Joe McKendrick
June 11, 2007 at 9:08 pm · Filed under Business, Biz 2.0
A recent study attempted to calculate the total power being consumed by today’s information technology, a topic that has been receiving a lot of attention lately. The study, conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and underwritten by AMD, estimated that electricity used by server computers doubled between 2000 and 2005, and now gulp down about 45 billion kilowatts per hour – equivalent to the amount of power used by the entire state of Mississippi in 2005. Additional devices such as storage, network equipment, and client front-ends were not included in the calculations.
It’s no secret that data centers – especially those run by social networking leaders such as Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Amazon – are the new industrial behemoths of the 21st Century. These providers are even taking care to make sure that they build their latest and greatest data centers within range of hydroelectric power sources.
Other vendors have been jumping on the “green” bandwagon, and many across the industry are pressing data center operators and solutions providers to go green, and better conserve energy resources. These are all noble goals, and certainly in the best interest of companies to save on power costs.
However, the Lawrence Berkeley study admittedly doesn’t to take into account the overall savings in electricity and power usage as a result of mass computerization. The study’s author, Jonathan Koomey, of Lawrence Berkeley and Stanford University, admits right up front that the study “only assesses the direct electricity used by servers and associated infrastructure equipment. It does not attempt to estimate the effect of structural changes in the economy enabled by increased use of information technology, which in many cases can be substantial.”
These can be substantial indeed, and it would be interesting to see studies on how these impacts are being felt.
Consider these potential areas of direct and indirect energy savings and you quickly get a very long list. Together, we’re probably talking about more resources saved than that used up by servers. Consider just one aspect: It’s generally assumed – and documented on a case-by-case basis – that e-business has drastically reduced the amount of paperwork moving inside and between organizations. Or, looking at the proliferation of online news and information, which many people now turn to, instead of hard-copy newspapers, magazines, or journals. How much paper, and therefore trees, has been saved as a result of Websites and PDF files? How has this savings translated into reduced tree harvesting and less energy consumed for the physical delivery of such documents?
Here are some other impactful areas that need to be examined:
The e-commerce channel is now a strong part of many businesses, and it can be assumed that to some degree, it has replaced some bricks and mortar construction and management, and all the energy consumption that goes with that. How many stores and shopping centers have not been built because of the replacement of sales through online channels?
Oil companies have been able to cut back on costly, time- consuming, sometimes environmentally risky drilling exploration because they can now model geologic environments with sophisticated tools running on large systems. How much disruption to the environment has been averted because of such modeling?
There’s the less frequent travel required, since collaborative tools and platforms enable teams to work virtually across the globe. How much have we saved in jet fuel for trips that no longer take place?
Online and distance learning have brought campuses right to students’ homes, cutting down on travel to and from physical campuses. Likewise, telecommuting enabled through IT has cut down on work commutes. How much fuel has been saved for these trips to work and school?
There have been industry-specific gains. For example, insurance companies leverage mobile technologies to cut down on trips made by claims adjusters out in the field - a savings that alone along ought to add up to quite a few barrels of oil.
Another area worth further study, not directly related to energy savings and environmental impact, is the economic opportunity and revitalization that is no longer limited to a few fortunate regions. Along with the unseen green aspects of networking, e-business and networking have opened up new channels of knowledge and opportunity to people that have long been denied such access.
For example, Native American reservations for years have been cut off, by geographic distance, from the mainstream of business. Residents have had to leave their communities to seek employment or attend school in other parts of the country. Now, it’s possible to build businesses, and attend the nations’ best universities, without leaving the community. Will distressed communities begin to see less outflow of human capital as a result of this connectivity to the world?
Before the world starts jumping to conclusions that data centers and IT are depleting our energy resources, we need to see more studies on the positive impact virtualized environments are having on our resources. I’m sure such information would open our eyes with amazement as to how much IT and networks is really saving us in resources, and adding value to communities that have long been bypassed or left for abandoned.