business case in green computing
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This document outlines a business case for improving energy efficiency and green computing practices at a company. It begins by defining what a business case is and the typical steps involved. It then identifies the key problems related to energy usage, equipment disposal, and acquiring new equipment. Baseline measurements are taken to quantify current energy usage and waste. Various strategies are proposed and evaluated to gradually or fully transition the company to more sustainable practices through initiatives targeting energy reduction, equipment selection, and proper disposal. Key areas of focus include desktop computers, data centers, and hardware components like CPUs and disk drives.
business case in green computing
- 1. BUSINESS CASE IN GREEN COMPUTING AND ENERGY USAGE By RAHUL SINHA
- 2. What is business case? •A business case is developed to educate and persuade company executives to take a specific course of action. •Steps involved: Problem statement Baseline measurement Desired end result Timeline for completion Estimation of money resources required
- 3. STEPS •A business case begins with a problem statement to set the context of the problem (or opportunity) faced by the company. •Next is a baseline measurement that quantifiably defines the problem. •The business case then presents the desired end result. This details the benefits and how the resulting process will function. •Finally, it predicts a timeline for completion of the project. • An estimate of money and resources is then done
- 4. IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM •A clearly articulated problem statement is the root of all successful changes. •The problems use the acronym of END (Energy, New equipment, Disposal). Energy – IT equipment wastes energy New equipment – When comparing new equipment for purchase, the acquisition cost must be added to the cost of the energy to operate the device over its useful life and its eventual disposal. Disposal – Prepare surplus electronic devices for reuse by other organizations or disposal by a licensed recycler.
- 5. MEASURE THE PROBLEM •With a problem statement in hand, the next action is to measure the size of the problem. •Measurements require identifying: 1.What to measure •units, watts, kilowatts, number of entire systems, etc. Deciding what to measure determines the answer’s units of measure. 2.How to measure •such as using a wattmeter or a physical count. It is important to ensure that the process for measuring is accurate. Otherwise all of the work is wasted. For example, if a wattmeter is used to measure the amount of electricity consumed, then it must be validated as accurate before use. 3.Timeperiod •It should be long enough to gather an essentially accurate idea of the magnitude and frequency of the issues. 4.Where to measure •This must be consistent when measuring the same type of thing at different locations.
- 6. ENERGY USAGE •Instead of placing the wattmeter in each system we select a representative desktop unit. •Run the desktop and monitor to obtain three 10 minute long readings: •Idle – where the PC is sitting without power management engaged. • Active – where the unit is running applications, such as the work processor, spreadsheet, and Internet browser. Most people work on their computer intermittently throughout the day. •Sleep or Hibernation – enable power management and place the unit into its lowest power mode. (In sleep mode, a computer uses less power and the system context is maintained in RAM, whereas hibernation uses less power and saves the system context to disk.)
- 7. Imagine that a desktop unit uses 150 watts when idle and 175 watts when active. Assume that it is active for only one hour during week days. Annually 1 month is considered as vacation (sick, off line meeting etc). Company’s cost for electricity is $0.10 per KWH. •Total cost for active mode=175*1*5*48 •Total cost for ideal mode in week days = 150*23*5*48 •Total cost for ideal in weekends = 150*24*2*48 •Total cost for ideal mode in vacation = 150*24*7*4 •1, 316,400 total watt hours. •Convert to kilowatts by dividing by 1000 = 1316 KWH. •Multiply this by the $0.10 KWH rate = $131.60 annual energy cost.
- 8. •KILL A WATT METER FOR MEASURING POWER USAGE AT THE OUTLET WATT METER MEASURING THE POWER USED BY A NOTEBOOK AT IDLE
- 9. Measuring Data Centre Energy Usage •To gauge the energy usage of a data centre, inventory all of the equipment in it. Because servers may have varying amounts of RAM, select a “typical” unit. •Equipment to list includes: Servers (list # by model) UPS units (list # by model) Storage area networks Large data centre printers Other large devices
- 10. •Unlike desktop units, data centre equipment tends to run around the clock every day of the year. This makes calculating energy usage easy. •It is 8,760 hours (in a year) multiplied by the hourly electricity usage multiplied by the number of years of its useful life. •This can be doubled to estimate the energy used for cooling. •The energy used by the air handling equipment can be estimated using the manufacturer’s power rating.
- 11. Measure of disposal of surplus equipments •The equipments that company offers has remaining useful life. Rather than tossing equipments into landfills, it should be offered for sale or should be donated. •This “e-Waste” makes up as much as 2 percent of all solid waste in the United States. It includes everything from computers to cell phones to televisions. •Disposal of electronic devices must be properly planned. They should never be thrown into the company trash hopper, as they contain toxic material that may leak back into the environment.
- 12. Create your vision for the solution •When in a business case, after the problem statement and baseline measurement ,development of the solution comes. •It should explain the solutions provided by the final state for each of the three Green Computing END challenges: •Energy – reduce use on desktop units and in data centre by 30%. •New equipments – reduce lifetime operating cost and disposal cost of new equipment by some percentage. •Disposal - ensure all company electronic components are properly disposed of in a legal and cost effective manner.
- 13. Selection of strategy •Once the problem statement has been approved, and a baseline metric has been determined, the next step is to select a strategy for achieving organizational goals. Three primary strategy: •The Looking Ahead strategy •The Competitive Advantage strategy • The Thoroughly Green strategy
- 14. The looking ahead strategy •The Looking Ahead strategy says that the company wants to be Green but lacks the time, money, and management will to convert everything at once. Instead, it says that all future purchases and disposals will be based on the company’s Green principles. •Companies choose this approach because: 1.It is the least disruptive to the normal flow of work. 2.It maximizes existing assets and gradually replaces them with more efficient ones. This minimizes the flow of usable equipment into the waste stream.
- 15. The competitive advantage strategy •The Competitive Advantage strategy says that this is a way for the company to stand out from its competitors. The company’s Green initiatives become selling points for a company’s good citizenship. •A midlevel manager is appointed as the “Green Champion” to administer the program •The Competitive Advantage strategy includes all of the elements of the “Looking Ahead” strategy, as well as: •All departments are required to comply, so executive attention is needed to minimize the disruption to ongoing company operations. •The company incurs expense as it proactively purchases more efficient equipment and disposes of less efficient devices. This equipment is likely not at the end of its useful life, so a program is needed to prepare it for sale or donation. •This is a company-wide effort. All employees must be educated as to their role is moving to Green and for sustaining its gains. Old work habits die hard. To make Green a permanent part of the company’s culture, someone must create the program and constantly promote it.
- 16. The throughout green strategy •The Thoroughly Green strategy includes the strategies of other two as well as the re-modelling or replacement of company buildings to include the capture and use of rainwater and on-site renewable, non-polluting energy sources. •The company’s “Green Champion” is a top level executive. •This strategy includes- 1. Is a multiyear plan that touches everything and everyone in the company. 2. Business processes are reengineered to be completely Green before moving into the new facility. 3. Will initially be an expensive shift. Over time, operating expenses will be reduced. 4.Requires that the company select suppliers who are also thoroughly Green
- 18. Wastage of energy •Energy is wasted by three ways: 1.Energy “lost” to heat: In some of the less efficient power supplies, this can be up to 50% of the total power received from the wall outlet. 2.Energy spent cooling the computer: Heat dumped out of the power supply raises the computer’s internal temperature and that of the surrounding air space. So some amount of energy is used to cool the system as well as the surrounding. 3. component failure: The expansion and contraction due to alternate heating and cooling will cause the component failure.
- 19. CPU Power Consumption •Once a computer is powered on, the CPU is running, and it burns a lot of energy. •The power consumed by the processor speed is calculated as P = CV2f, where P is power, C is the capacitance, V is the voltage, and f is the frequency. •In the case of servers, the CPU can consume up to 35 percent of the power used by the machine. •Random Access Memory •(RAM) to support the CPU can consume another 15 percent of the computers total power (depending on how much RAM is loaded).
- 20. •Processor manufacturers usually release two power consumption numbers for a CPU: 1.Typical thermal power-which is measured in the normal load and conditions. 2. maximum thermal power- which is measured under a worst- case set of instructions. •Some of the recent industry improvements include: •Notebook computers utilize the processors that reduce their speed if they are not being used intensely. This is also available in more recent CPUs for desktops. Intel’s version of the technology is called “Speed Step”. •Deep Sleep – Processors that are idling for a certain period of time can go into a sleep mode. •AMD Cool Core Technology: It can cut power to unused transistor areas to reduce power consumption and lower heat generation
- 21. •The Average CPU Power (ACP) metric is used by AMD to give customers a more accurate idea of the power consumed by the processor. •Intel Corp. rates their processors by the Thermal Design Power (TDP).This indicates the maximum amount of power the cooling system in a computer must dissipate from the CPU for it to operate properly. The TDP rating indicates the maximum power that it would draw when running real applications.
- 22. Disk drive •In a data storage centre, depending on how data is stored, many disk drives may be simultaneously running. Each drive draws power. •Disk drives work by storing data on a set of flat rotating surfaces called a disk or platter. Spinning these platters is the main source of energy consumption.
- 23. •If all disk drives in the centre are spinning all the time, a large amount of power is constantly consumed. This activity also generates heat that must be dissipated or cooled. • A rule of thumb in the data centre is that one watt of power for equipment means one watt of power for cooling.
- 24. Improvements in disk drives •The more efficient use of power indicates that these hard drives will also run cooler. •IntelliPower – By balancing spin speed and transfer rate, and by utilizing special caching algorithms, the hard drives reduce energy usage as well as maintain solid performance. •IntelliPark – By unloading the recording heads while the drive is idle, drag is reduced on the disk, requiring less energy to maintain its minimum rotation speed.