Go lean or go green

We all have them. Those strategic projects that we’d love to start, that we know would make a difference to the business and would actually be a personal achievement to deliver on. However, these are sadly the projects we often just can’t find the resource for – resource that is too scarce and valuable to do all the things that need to be done.

For this reason we chose innovation and sustainability as the theme of our recent Innovate ’07 conference, which took place in Sydney on 21 February. It is our belief that leadership and innovation are key to ensuring the legacy we leave is one of a sustainable planet. Innovation is the key to transcending the damage we have already done.

Finding resource to help refocus

Fujitsu’s Mark Poley believes that the data centre is an untapped area ripe for cost savings, which will free up the resource we’ve all been looking for. And in most cases, the data centre consumes more resource than it needs to: with many organisations running old, costly legacy systems which need modernising, with plenty of spare capacity. However, there is a general unwillingness to change this situation. Mark says, “Because the data centre is at the heart of many businesses’ IT, there’s often a feeling that it shouldn’t be touched, that it’s too sensitive to change, or heaven forbid, be outsourced.” The reality, argues Mark, is different. “Data centres can be safely evolved and modernised with no disruption to normal service. The key here is to use proven standards-based technology, best practices (such as ITIL) and to automate the data centre management wherever possible.”

Technology increasing energy requirements

But, could the increasing requirement to cut carbon emissions cause obstacles for those looking to cut their data centre costs? Fujitsu’s Glenn Fitzgerald says, “On the face of it, some newer technologies aren’t helping us cut energy consumption. We are always looking for ways to up the performance of individual servers. As a result, the data centre is becoming more heat dense. We then need to spread this heat around, which we usually achieve with cooling – temperature-controlled environments, liquid cooling for enclosures and so on. But this in turn adds to our power consumption – ultimately increasing the carbon footprint. For organisations in London, this becomes more problematic, as you can’t carbon trade in central London".

Is lean the new green?

Clearly then, managing environmental outputs of the data centre is challenging. So how should organisations proceed? Can you cut costs and reduce your carbon footprint? Mark comments, “Solving the data centre challenge is all about rationalisation. For instance, take server utilisation rates. A server still consumes power whether it is at 20% or 90% utilisation, so people are in effect paying for their servers to do nothing. Not good for business, not good for the planet.” This example shows that a cost-cutting approach can work hand in hand with reducing environmental impacts. However, the technology is not the key issue in either cutting costs or reducing emissions. The key lies with orchestrating a basic shift in business practice within the organisation.

Breaking silos, cuttimg costs

Glenn says: “To really accelerate rationalisation, the single big win is to break down silos within the business. Try and find areas where the same tasks are duplicated and then see how you can re-use the resource. Getting technology assets re-used across departments or business units drastically cuts costs, freeing you up to focus on the projects that’ll make difference.”

Why now?

Cutting costs is a constant imperative and the green agenda is certainly a looming issue, but what is there to suggest that organisations should attempt data centre rationsalisation with any urgency? Glenn says: “I’ve seen a number of organisations sweat their existing data centre assets, but in many cases, the cracks are beginning to show, I’d question whether there is much more mileage available. On the positive side, there’s a number of key technologies that have really matured in the last 18 months. Virtualisation, clustering, differentiated storage, agentless management tools – they’ve all been around a while, but they are now far more ‘real’ – so cutting data centre costs can be a far more risk-free enterprise.”

This article appeared in the latest issue (Issue 23) of Strategy 4 Business, Fujitsu Services’ quarterly customer magazine. For further insights from the UK and Europe, please visit www.fujitsu.co.uk/strategy4business

Fujitsu, along with partners HP, VMWare and APC, is hosting a briefing briefing entitled ‘How green is your data centre?’ on Friday 15 March 2007 from 8.00-10.30am at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney. To register for this event, please contact Scott Maclachlan on 02 9113 9270 or email scott.maclachlan@au.fujitsu.com