Bob Violino is a freelance writer based in Massapequa Park, New York.

Keep It Simple, and Green
You can cut IT and energy costs at the same time.

Standardize on products wherever possible. According to The Hackett Group, companies with less-complex IT infrastructures are more effective and efficient, and spend less on IT as a percent of revenue. Often, complexity breeds more complexity: a vast applications portfolio, for example, typically requires a more complex infrastructure. Companies that standardize desktop computers, pool application-development efforts, and consolidate vendors have cut their IT operating costs by as much as 50 percent over four to five years, Hackett says.

IT asset-management software can help companies get a better handle on how much hardware and software they have and whether they are overbuying software licenses or hardware upgrades. The software creates an inventory of software and hardware assets and measures which applications are actually being used. Asset-management tools can help eliminate expensive licenses and maintenance contracts.

For a time, the ever-lower cost of computer servers prompted companies to buy them in droves, but that resulted in overcapacity and attendant management problems. Now, many companies are using fewer, more-powerful servers to tackle multiple tasks, a feat made possible by virtualization software that allows one server to do the work of many. Delaware Electric Cooperative, a Greenwood, Delaware, electric utility that provides electricity in southern Delaware, launched a virtualization project last year and reduced the number of servers it needed from 20 to 6, says CFO Gary Cripps. In the process it reduced server power usage by 80 percent and disk-maintenance time by 90 percent.

Virtualization is a key part of broader efforts to make computer data centers, which consume huge amounts of electricity, more efficient. Eaton, a diversified industrial manufacturer in Cleveland, deployed energy-efficient blade servers and virtualization software and now saves more than $1.5 million annually in power and lease costs, according to CIO Bill Blausey. The company also developed programs to automate its data centers, so it can better manage capacity and shut off idle servers. The company also benefits by meeting the criteria of a "demand response program" sponsored by a local utility, saving it another $40,000 per year in one facility alone. CFO Rick Fearon credits a close partnership between finance, IT, and facilities with helping the company develop a greener data-center strategy. — B.V.

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