Computing Goes Green: Business and Social Effects Case Study

Business and social problems that data center power consumption cause

Datacenter power consumption causes several business and social problems. Among them are:

1. the ever-growing demand for power supply;
2. regular expenses, caused by the constant growth of electricity prices;
3. regular expenses for the equipment maintenance, which is necessary on the reason of fouling due to enormous temperatures in server rooms;
4. regular expenses for the cooling systems in data centers.

In addition, operating data centers by companies cause serious environmental problems because of the heat, produced by servers, and because of enormous power consumption rates, which require inflicting additional harm on the planet as generating electricity is usually connected with pollution.

Solutions for these problems

The problems, caused by data centers operation can be seriously reduced using:

1. producing new and more efficient cooling technologies;
2. developing special software, which will control the level of heat, generated by servers;
3. elaborating new computer technologies, requiring less power supply and generating fewer heat as a result of their work;
4. looking for the safer sources of power supply;
5. investing in renewable energy projects and eco-friendly energy sources finding;
6. shifting to thin client computer technologies.

Nowadays, all of these solutions are already in the process of active implementation. For instance, “Google, Microsoft, and HSBC are all building data centers that will take advantage of hydroelectric power” (Laudon & Laudon, 2005, p. 210). Also, Hewlett Packard is working on developing “a series of technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of data centers by 75 percent” (Laudon & Laudon, 2005, p. 210). All of the offered solutions are environmentally friendly because all of them aim to improve the situation with the heat, produced by data centers; lessen the amount of electricity, necessary for data centers operating; and provide a stricter control for the assessment of the levels of heat, entering the environment.

The business benefits and cost of these solutions

The business benefits of the above-mentioned solutions are far-reaching. First, firms will be able to reduce their costs for cooling systems, which is very important as according to Laudon and Laudon (2005, p. 210), “the average annual utility bill of a 100,000-square-foot data center is $5.9 million”. This figure shows how huge the expenses of firms and corporations on cooling their data centers are. Of course, reducing these expenses must be among the primary objectives of managers in business organizations. Second, the implementation of these solutions will cause a decrease in electricity consumption in the world, which is by far the most important goal of the world governments regarding the ecological crisis, which can be observed nowadays.

Beyond all doubt, costs for implementing these solutions are considerable. At the initial stages, they may significantly exceed the levels of expected profits. However, these costs will justify themselves no later than in a few-year period.

Moving toward green computing by all firms

Green computing must become an essential part of business strategy for all firms because it’s a positive business and social effects are evident. It is economically unwise for firms to continue dwelling on disadvantageous conditions in operating their data centers. Millions or even billions of US dollars can be saved in case green computing strategies are implemented by business organizations around the world. In addition, the environmental benefits of green computing are more than considerable, and in modern conditions of global warming and climate change, they acquire special importance.

Reference

Laudon, K., & Laudon, J. (2005). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm (12th ed.). New York: Pearson.