ComputerworldUK

IT directors are tired of green marketing messages and want proper benchmarks to evaluate products. The greenest thing they can do though is sweat their assets according to a leading UK government green IT leader.

British PC maker Akhter Computers has launched a computer that can run at 3GHz, yet consumes just 55 watts when in use, less energy than a light bulb.

IT managers have been accused of ignoring green issues after a new survey from international consultancy group Morse revealed that 89 percent of businesses have no idea how much energy the IT department uses.

Nexsan has taken its AutoMAID technology - which throttles back the power usage of hard drives that are not currently being accessed - and applied it to a SAS array, claiming to be the first supplier with an energy-efficient SAS storage system.

IBM has introduced a carbon-emissions modelling tool, aimed at helping businesses analyse the environmental impact of supply-chain decisions and to devise alternative business practices.

The UK government's top CIO blasts the industry at an important Green IT event. Good read.

Why do so many people talk about carbon footprints, when what they mean is energy efficiency and power consumption?

Analyst report from In-Stat says LAN switches from 3Com are up to 60 percent more energy efficient than those from its competitors.

The IT industry needs to benchmark and copy best practice methodology rather than design from scratch, according to UK Government CIO John Suffolk.

VMware is talking up the green benefits of its virtualisation technology after recording a strong performance in the first quarter.

For every server virtualised, customers can save about 7,000 kilowatt hours, or four tons of CO2 emissions, every year, says company.

We all need to support teh use of Open Source thin-client solutions in an educational context. Its worth stating, again, what is really the blindingly obvious - thin-client work stations use one twentieth of the power of a typical PC (10-20 watts versus 200-400 watts), require no maintenance or technical per-machine support.

Green sells, whether the product in question is a hybrid car or a laptop computer. Tech firms know this, but they also face growing scepticism as a result of the the deluge of greenwash we are all being subjected to.

Only about 10 percent of PCs used by organisations have power management enabled, and as a result are wasting large amounts of electricity.

Nearly half of IT professionals admit that they had run out of space, power or cooling capacity at their datacentres, according to a recent survey of 150 IT professionals.

Its worth stating, again, what is really the blindingly obvious - thin-client work stations use one-twentieth of the power of a typical PC (10-20 watts versus 200-400 watts), require no maintenance or technical per-machine support and Open Source software is free of licence costs.

Xerox has long been known for innovation and recently they released an online Flash-application-based Sustainability Calculator, which helps companies understand the savings they will achieve by reductions in the number of printers they have.

Utility companies are increasingly concerned about the power crisis facing large organisations and in the US this week they have met to discuss the actions and incetnives needed to get IT organisations to take the issue seriously.

A survey carried out within the 150-member Corporate iT Forum reveals 81 percent to have pushed Green IT further up their agenda compared to last year. But cost remains a crucial sticking point.

Much as I am skeptical of bold-faced claims like "Vista is green" it does appear that Steve Ballmer is talking some sense on the subject. In Computerworld coverage of CeBIT this week it was notable that rather than talking about product Ballmer talked about best practices.

Top retailer Marks and Spencer and leading charity Oxfam are incentivising recycling. Major IT suppliers have recycling schemes for their old kit, but we haven't seen them offer substantial rebates for doing so. Its about time they did.

Virtualisation is simply the ability to pool computing resources so that can be accessed by many devices and services. Using virtualisation you can drive up computer utilisation from 15% or capacity to nearer 90%. The green benefits are obvious.

Bit of a dig here about Apple's trendy new laptop and why Apple might not be as good for the environment as hety would like us ot believe they are now.

"Apple is not a leader on a greener market, it's just catching up, making small careful steps where giant ones are needed and projecting the small ones on a big screen to make them look bigger than they really are..."

IBM is getting its developers to create "green code" - that means building software products that focus on efficiency. Another sign that green is not just good for the environment but encourages good design that we can all benefit from.

What is claimed to be the first public document to look at the energy demands of IT products and services and set out a plan to cut IT’s carbon footprint has been published by Intellect, the UK tech industry’s trade association.

Sun saves 11,000 trees a year with paperless annual reports. Other Fortune 500 companies please take note...

Data centres use more power per square foot than any other part of the IT estate but, as a percentage of total power consumption, office equipment is the place where the most gains can be made. This is how ot do it.

Microsoft, with 70,000 employees spread out across the world, is deep into a corporate-wide evaluation of how it can become a more environmentally friendly corporation.

The US Central Intelligence Agency is adopting green building technology from the roof down in its new Virginia campus facilities. The end results are buildings that may be more corporate than spy novel.

The IT industry's biggest trade show is going green and being fully supporting the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. But wouldn't everyone be bettter off staying at home and if you must, using the Internet to get the info you need?