The Lippis Report

The stock market crash of 2008 and the subsequent global economic downturn have diverted attention away from major IT industry themes. But as business and IT leaders come to grips with new economic realities one theme, Green IT, has not lost its luster. In fact, green is increasingly being viewed as “lean” as it complements corporate efficiency initiatives, which have been prioritized during this current business cycle. In short, the economic slow down is offering business and IT leaders an opportunity to accelerate their Green IT plans as these programs improve operational and energy efficiency.

For IT executives most of their Green IT efforts have focused on data center power and thermal efficiency by leveraging tools and programs such as data center consolidation, server and storage virtualization and procurement of IT devices with improved power supply conservation technology. While data center power efficiency projects are worthy of their investments and results, the fact is that data center power consumption represents less than 2% of total electrical power consumed on average.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculated that the energy consumed by the nation’s servers and data centers was estimated at 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006, which accounted for 1.5 % of total U.S. electricity consumption at a cost of about $4.5 billion. This consumption is two times larger than what was consumed in 2000 and is projected to double again by 2011 unless efficiencies are implemented, according to the EPA.

To limit climate changes, many believe that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 25 gigatonnes (Gt) to 30 Gt of CO2 equivalents (CO2e) annually by 2030; a tonne is a metric ton. Gartner estimates Green IT’s total CO2 emission reduction is approximately 0.6 Gt. Clearly there has to be better ways to leverage IT to not only reduce its own power consumption but the power consumption of non-IT devices. For example, in a typical commercial building, lighting plus heating and cooling represents some 66% of total electrical energy consumption while IT represents between 25 and 30%. Within IT, desktop computers, printers, etc., consume 50%, data centers draw 30% while networks represent 10% of electrical energy consumption.

Much attention in the IT vendor community has been placed upon individual devices and data center power consumption in an effort to reduce carbon footprints and energy cost. And while these are all welcome activities which deliver real results in both power consumption reduction and savings on spend, there is a broader networked-based approach to address the remaining 98% power consumed which can deliver far greater gains in power efficiency and cost reduction.

The networked approach to power management is based upon the simple fact that all devices are connected into a network. Today these devices are IT-based, including computers, storage, printers, access points, cameras, phones, special network appliances such as firewalls, mobile devices, and increasingly TVs and other non-IT electronics. The network is in a unique position to monitor, distribute commands and most importantly control the power consumption of the devices it connects. This concept is straightforward for devices that obtain their power from network switches via Power over Ethernet (PoE) such as wireless LAN access points (AP), IP phones, ethernet/IP-based video surveillance cameras, etc. But the networked approach to the power management concept is being extended to non-PoE IT devices such as computers, digital signage, printers, storage, fax machines, etc. The concept can be extended further still to non-IT systems such as building controls, lighting, elevators, 24/7 monitoring systems, HVAC-sensors, fire/smoke sensors, et al.

To achieve this level of power management there needs to be an open architecture rich enough to foster a new green energy ecosystem. This architecture will offer business and IT leaders the command and control tools to manage and measure overall corporate versus just IT power consumption with the potential to demonstrably reduce energy cost and CO2 emissions, comply with government regulations, industry directives, and gain real business rewards through improved environmental practices and posture.

Cisco’s new EnergyWise architecture offers enterprise IT energy management software to monitor and control the ability to change the state of power consumption of devices connected to the network. IBM’s smart grid maturity model is a framework designed to help energy and utility companies improve how power is distributed and used, adding intelligence throughout the grid to dramatically reduce outages and faults, improve responsiveness, handle current and future demand, increase efficiency and manage costs. Building a national smart grid will take time while Cisco’s EnergyWise will focus on controlling corporation energy use.

With EnergyWise, enterprise networks will not only be a distributor of packets but a control plan to manage power consumption extending IT’s value proposition beyond traditional cost reduction and productivity improvement to total energy, cost and carbon reduction and optimization. For Cisco, IBM and others who offer enterprise energy management solutions, the basis of competition to manage power will be on the scale of their ecosystem, the number and type of devices they can manage and the usefulness of their energy management software.

For corporations, Cisco’s EnergyWise promises to offer the ability to program and control energy consumption of devices and facilities such as AC, heating, lighting, etc., much like programmable thermostats. Selectively powering down building controls and IT after hours and turning them back on in the morning will be the largest use at first. Today to conserve energy, facility managers have the option to either turn power on or off; there is little to no monitoring and intelligence in the decision. This is about to change as EnergyWise will provide facility managers the tools to be more surgical in their energy conservation efforts.

For corporations the use of EnergyWise offers a means to view power consumption, optimize its use and reduce cost and carbon spend.

I offer the following recommendations to business and IT leaders who seek to develop demonstrable impact on corporate energy cost reduction, power conservation, reduced GhG, emissions energy regulation compliance and the benefits associated with an improved corporate “Green” brand.

1) Consider Cisco EnergyWise as a component of your corporate green initiatives to, over time, manage not only power consumed by IT devices but all electronic systems. Clearly, Cisco EnergyWise will evolve over a long period of time as its ecosystem develops and value is added to its architecture. Cisco EnergyWise could be thought of as an eco-friendly — and business beneficial — technology that provides increased power conservation opportunities as it evolves and matures.

2) Consider pilot-based Cisco EnergyWise deployment first to understand the technology and its limitations, develop skill sets and perhaps most importantly develop an energy efficiency policy which can be managed, monitored, enforced and optimized under Cisco EnergyWise.

3) Consider developing success metrics such as power managed per port, energy reduction and spend goals, power consumed per worker productivity, power spend as a percentage of revenue, power spend as percentage of EBDIT (earnings before depreciation, interest and tax) plus other relevant success factors to track your progress and success.