Green Computing in Iraq

In late November one of my technical team (Haider Kadhim) who was born in Iraq travelled to Baghdad, Iraq to present the Reed Green Computing Case Study in Arabic at the AEC 08 conference at Hotel Al-Rasheed.

The conference was attended by many of Iraqi government ministries and there was a lot of interest.

http://www.aec08.org/?p=1&lang=en Website in English

http://www.aec08.org/ Website in Arabic

Haider is now working with the University of Baghdad to provide Wyse Thin Client terminals as an educational lab courtesy of Wyse and Reed.

Reed wins Green Project of the year at the Computing Excellence Awards

On Wednesday evening 5th November, I was privileged and very proud to pick up an award for "Green Project of the year" for Reed at the prestigious Computing Excellence Awards 2008 in London, UK.

This completes a hat trick of awards in 2008 based on our Green computing projects,

A video of the Green Project of Year presentation can be viewed below




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A full list of the Computing Excellence award winners 2008 can be found here

The Computing Excellence Green Project of the Year 2008 shortlist can be found here

I have also included a copy of our submission to the judges below.

GREEN PROJECT OF THE YEAR SUBMISSION: REED MANAGED SERVICES

Return On Investment ROI

Reed Managed Services delivers managed IT services across the Reed Group of companies at a monthly fee per desktop, across a network of over 4000 IT knowledge based users. The head of IT services is Sean Whetstone.

The decision to implement thin computing was driven by a goal of achieving real reductions in energy consumption from IT; and a separate goal on increased operational efficiencies while improving the quality of IT provision.

The 12 month project delivered clear ROI in key areas: reduced hourly power consumption by 5.4 million KW hours of power; reduced annual IT spend by 20% and delivered greater flexibility and security through use of Wyse thin client terminals, centralised data and applications, consolidated data centre infrastructure and virtualisation software


Innovation

Few other major corporates have chosen to switch from a PC to a thin client computing model on such a large scale. The project saw the complete replacement of all 4500 desktop PCs with a thin computing solution based on Wyse thin client terminals; and new data centre infrastructure based on 64-bit blade servers and virtualisation software.

This change delivered major energy consumption savings and enabled greener working practices for all staff. Previously PCs had to be left turned on 24x7 to allow overnight software patching. With thin clients there is no need for this practice and the changes are applied centrally on Wyse management software. The faster start-up time of the Wyse terminals mean staff switch off their terminals at lunchtime and the end of their working day.

Thin clients delivered other benefits including remote working with staff able to log onto their personal settings at any thin client terminal in any office; and the elimination of local workstation storage and centralised storage of data and applications meant critical information was secure and always backed up.

Reed uses its new thin computing infrastructure to transform how it delivers computer services internationally. With its UK-based central data centre running 24X7, Reed can provide IT services via Wyse thin clients to its Australia operations on the same servers at a time when those servers would otherwise be standing idle because it is night time in Western Europe.


The choice of more energy efficient servers meant lower heat emissions, enabling the data centre to operate at a higher temperature and thus reduce the need for air conditioning.- further helping to cut electrical consumption.


Future Growth

Thin computing model on a large scale makes it much easier for Reed to respond to future expansion nationally and internationally. This was demonstrated when Reed was able to establish a new remote office in Australia in less than four weeks because of the more flexible IT infrastructure available.


Management

Reed recognised that the decision to go for thin computing had to be carefully managed with both the board and staff. A three month trial demonstrated to the board that the solution was easy to set up and manage, in addition to being economic and environmentally-friendly to run.

But Reed’s IT division also had to convince the end-users. “We had a lot to prove: taking away someone’s PC and replacing it with a thin terminal is quite a dramatic move for most people to become comfortable with, and we were expecting a lot of resistance”: said Sean Whetstone, Head of IT Services.

Reed worked in close collaboration with Wyse to implement the solution within as short a timeframe as possible. Reed replaced all of its 4500 PCs in 10 weeks. A swift and smooth implementation helped to win over staff.


Excellence

Within a year of migrating to a thin computing model, Wyse thin computers have helped Reed achieve its goal of significantly reducing its carbon footprint.

In replacing the PCs with thin terminals across all locations, Reed witnessed a dramatic reduction in energy consumption – approximately 5.4 million KW hours of power – one of the main causes of carbon emissions. These, combined with halving the number of storage drives and reducing the number of servers by a factor of 20, have resulted in a 20% reduction in Reed’s annual IT budget.

“Cutting our IT budget by 20% through thin clients, virtualisation, as well as achieving reduced energy consumption is a tremendous result for us,” concludes Whetstone. “Not only have we met our objective to significantly reduce our carbon emissions, but we have also discovered a more cost-efficient way of operating and growing our business, which will continue to reduce our operating costs for years to come.”

Ends

Green IT Expo Day 2

Day two started with a presentation from Peter Houghton of Very PC and Dragons Den fame

A video of Peter receiving an award after his presentation can be viewed below




At the end of the presentation Very PC were awarded the runners up prize for Green Supplier 2008.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DLyrYH9SmTw

Two of Very PC products their server and a ultra small and green PC can also be seen below

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hTdNrZmxg84&NR=1 Green PC Fulwood

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LNeBj4SuyWI&NR=1 Green Dual Server on Voltage/Watt
Meter

Green IT Expo Day One

I visited the Green IT Expo in the Barbican Exhibition Halls in London today.

Day one started with Chris Mines from analyst gr op Forrester.

He self confessed he had flown in from America and therefore increasing his own personal carbon footprint.

He started by re-defining "Green IT" as "IT suppliers and their customers reducing the harmful environmental impacts of computing"

He then highlighted three steps that origination's could take to green their computer operations

1) Eco + Eco (Economics + Ecology)

Myth: Green IT is more expensive

Reality: Green IT will often have a lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

2) Combine Technology with process and People.

Myth: New Technology will dramatically reduce carbon footprint

Reality: There is no technical magic bullet, business processes and employee behaviour as just as important

3) Position IT as a leader for the business

Myth: IT has enough to do just making computing greener

Reality: IT must help green the other 90% of the company's operations

Chris summarised by repeating Now is the time to move Green IT from awareness to action.

Some of the stats can be found at http://www.forrester.com/greenitexpo2008

You need to register to view the information on the website.

The second keynote I attended was delivered by Colette Maloney, Head of ICT for Sustainable Growth (Unit H4) for the European Commission. She explained 11 research projects were being funded on sustainable computing to the tune of twenty millions euros in 2008. In 2009 the funding was set to grow to 50 million euros of funding.

She also quoted European president Barroso as saying "The ICT sector is crucial to the huge forward looking project we are embarking upon with our climate policy"

Another keynote I watched that impressed me was Chris Bullock who was representing Climate Savers

He suggested three steps for all companies to adopt as a minimum:

1. Turn on Computer power management

2. Buy energy efficient computers

3. Tell others about it

You can sign up as a company or an individual at http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/

I signed up my company and as an individual on the train ride home using my ASUS EEEPC.

I visited a number of stands which I will summarise tomorrow along side Day two.

http://www.greenitexpo.com/