Go Green - says enterprise IT
By Renjith VP, SiliconIndia   |   Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 13:14 IST   |    4 Comments
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Go Green - says enterprise IT
Bangalore: Green IT or Green Computing seems to be the keyword for the new paradigm shift by enterprise IT globally. This year saw many companies putting their best efforts to promote green and contribute to the overall green initiatives to address global warming concerns. It was interesting to see lot of firms coming up with appealing concepts for green IT following the World Environmental Day on June 5. Dell had committed to become the greenest company of the planet. It launched the Dell Go Green Challenge to raise awareness and community involvement in green initiatives in India. It is also committed to eliminate PVC and brominated flame retardants from all newly shipping products by the end of 2011, and already ships several PVC/BFR-free/reduced products. Greenpeaces Guide to Greener Electronics recently named Wipro as the number one company in terms of green. Wipro has been elementary in the use of recycled plastic and put up a nice performance in the chemical criterion. In addition, the company has recently launched GreenWare range of desktops which are not only 100 percent recyclable, but also toxin free. The GreenWare range has a 13 percent share of the company's total hardware output. And a sneak peek into global market will tell us that IT firms in the Silicon Valley are all brains for the green initiative which in a long run would ensure benefits for both the industry and the consumers. Green IT practices such as data center virtualization, better data center design and layout, and asset life cycle management, which reduce the need for capex, are becoming increasingly important as IT budgets remain constrained. The new offering from IBM helps companies to join the 'go green' mission via making their building more energy efficient. The Sustainability Management system of IBM can collect real-time data from various systems like lighting, heating or elevators, and the software can suggest or automatically make adjustments in order to have maximum energy efficiency. Amidst the feasibility of these projects and how far companies are benefitting from Green IT, Infosys celebrated Environment Day 2010 across its Development Centers in India through activities organized by Infosys Green Connect team and ECO Groups. The launch of Infy SmartWatt Championship, a contest that aims at encouraging Infoscions and their families to reduce their electricity consumption over the next six months was another key initiative of Infosys. The Infy SmartWatt Championship was developed with the objective to strengthen awareness and actions in building sustainable lifestyles, and aims at influencing the demand side efficiency of power consumption. After all its welcome news for the environmentalists that despite the recession and mixed signals from Congress about greening American industry, some of U.S. largest companies are embracing a revolutionary concept called sustainability. Indian enterprises are also in track with no less than a competition among themselves. TCS has been rated A+ for its sustainability report by Global Reporting Initiative and HCL, one of the top five greenest companies in India. With the IT fraternity brainstorming frequently and working earnestly on green computing, government should also see to it that these firms are provided with aides like tax breaks which will be a moral boost to them.

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