- Microsoft Research: Spin server disks down to save energy
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As part of ongoing research into the energy efficiency of data centers, Microsoft Research (MSR) have released a paper discussing the results of testing disk subsystems usage and potential to 'spin down' disks when they are not being used. In the past there was an assumption disks couldn't be spun down due to continuous use, however MSR found during their week long trial on 36 volumes in their data center there were "significant" periods of idle time.
Their solution to helping reduce energy used by disks, up to 45-60%, was to enable functionality called "write off-loading" - this allows write requests on spun-down disks to be temporarily redirected to alternative persistent storage (such as NVRAM or flash).
A few interesting facts from their paper:
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enterprise storage sub-systems don't have advanced power management capabilities (because it is inherently difficult) and they consume approximately 10w when idle;
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write off-loading is a block level, transparent process;
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the key challenge was consistency - "Each write request to any volume can be off-loaded to one of several other locations depending on a number of criteria, including the power state and the current load on the destination. This per-operation load balancing improves performance, but it means that successive writes of the same logical block could be offloaded to different destinations. It is imperative that the consistency of the original volume is maintained even in the presence of failures. We achieve this by persisting sufficient metadata with each off-loaded write to reconstruct the latest version of each block after a failure."
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They tested two types of off-loading: machine level off-load (writes are offloaded to a "logger" on the same server) and rack level off-load (writes are offloaded to any "logger" in the rack) and found the latter to utilise the least energy (55% of the baseline).
Check out the complete paper outlining the details of the tests and associated research here: http://research.microsoft.com/camsys/paper-final.pdf
- My take on TechNet Article: "10 keys to becoming an environmental leader"
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There has been a great TechNet article posted by Michael Walsh and Eliza Walsh on the top 10 focus areas to becoming a leader on environment and sustainability issues. Below is an overview of my perspective on their focus areas...
#1 - Be familiar with environmental issues and #10 - Remain Current. There are any number of great publications you can subscribe to, and lots of different events and courses you could attend and they are increasing all the time. There are plenty of places you can look including energy standards websites, environmental group websites, "Green IT" news websites, Corporate Management Associations etc etc. On my website, I usually post a number of these events and links to great websites if they are relevant to environmentally sustainable IT issues.
#2 - Objectively assess your company. As well as the suggestions from Michael and Eliza, you may want to engage a professional environment consulting business, who is well aware of the environmental standards businesses should perform to. There are international standards as well which you can baseline against, both from a pure business environmental perspective (e.g. ISO14001 – Environmental Management Systems) or from an Environmentally Sustainable IT perspective (e.g. The Green Grid develops metrics for baselining your data centre power usage).
#3 - Envision where you want to be and when and # 4 - Develop a vision and strategy. One of the areas that is lightly touched on in this section of the article is the importance of feedback. However for a business’ environmental strategy I would strongly recommend more than just feedback after a strategy has been laid out. Involving your employees directly in both planning and execution is crucial to their acceptance of any potential changes. As an example, when Microsoft Australia embarked on their environmental program, they set in place a leadership team who became the core sponsors, including the Microsoft Australia GM, Tracey Fellows. Then they called for anyone willing to put their hand up to become part of the various action teams. These teams would be brainstorming ideas and developing the high level strategy and action plans. And this approach meant people across our business, from many different departments, were directly influencing the program’s goals and outcomes. Our Environment and Sustainability Director was put in charge of all the teams and she and the executive sponsor team assigned team leaders, from the volunteer pool. The team leaders then ran sessions over the course of the program to gather, summarise and present the strategy back to the executive sponsor team. It was an approach that worked really well and generated fantastic discussion and many different but valuable views on our environmental strategy.
#5 – Evangelise the business imperative. Having setup these great teams of passionate and knowledgeable people, Microsoft Australia not only had 1 person evangelising environmental responsibility, but whole teams of people distributed throughout the company. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. The environmental evangelism continues at MS Australia.
#6 – Manage your messaging. I think Microsoft may sometimes be perceived as not doing as much in the environmental space as some of the other technology companies. I know that’s what I thought when I first joined MS last year. And I was pleasantly surprised to find we do a tonne of stuff that never gets recognised – like how MCS recently developed a crucial environmental management application for one of our government customers. They used Microsoft Dynamics CRM to provide a single customer view and Microsoft SQL Server to provide comprehensive reporting. And the impressive user interface and service oriented architecture was built on the newest .NET technologies of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF). I think those quiet achievements are sometimes so much better than the ones shouted from the rooftops. J
#7 – Enable management through measurement and #8 – Analyze and report environment impact. If there is something that Microsoft technologies can enable then it’s this. I personally think this is one of the best areas where technology can play a role to environmental sustainability. Rock on reporting! One of the coolest solutions I have seen in this space from Microsoft is our Dynamics Environment Dashboard.
#9 – Be a thought leader. The best thing I could recommend here is to look at Michael and Eliza’s roles and think about which one you want to be. Then get out there and talk to people, join groups, volunteer your time with environmental organisations, RSS everything on “Green IT” and write your own stuff. Since I first got involved in environmental science two of the best things I have done were to develop my own website and become an advisory board member for a non-profit organisation. They both push me to keep learning new things and help me consolidate my knowledge about how IT and the environment can work better together. I can’t know everything and neither can you, but reading and writing about the environment and technology will help you develop your own theories and standards on what works and what doesn’t for your company.
- Green IT Video: Interview with Microsoft IT Manager Australia
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In May I interviewed Jonathan Lewis, Microsoft Field IT Manager in Australia on his views of Environmentally Sustainable IT and what Microsoft Australia is doing in this space.
- Comprehensive list of Vista Power Management resources...
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There is a tonne of information available on Vista power management, from whitepapers to videos to blog posts. I’ve tried to document a list of the best here:
· Optimising Windows Vista for power efficiency - this white paper details the various scenarios and configurations you can enable, including detailed INF configurations for building SOEs. Focuses a bit on system builders but any SOE specialist will find this valuable.
· Windows Vista Energy Conservation – a good broad overview of the features in Windows Vista that help conserve energy use. Includes some test figures for how much power a PC consumes and formulas for how you can calculate energy savings, and the subsequent impact on carbon emissions.
· Application Power Management Best Practices in Windows Vista – details application event management and best practices on how application developers on handling low power states and designing for extending battery life.
· ACPI / Power Management – Architecture and Driver support – a great website that lists a number of resources to help you better understand and develop on a Windows platform for greater energy efficiency.
· Power Management with Windows Vista Best Practices PowerPoint slides – a great 2 page slide deck from Microsoft IT that could be used to educate internal users at your organisation.
· Power Management in Windows Vista – a slide deck from WinHEC 2006 by Pat Stemen in the Windows Platform Architecture Group, outlining the goals of Vista power management, and providing an overview of reliable sleep transitions, modes, power configuration using powercfg, and broad best practices.
· Processor Power Management in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 – concepts, policies and tools to use for power management.
· Active State Power Management in Windows Vista – a brief whitepaper covering the effect of bus architecture on power consumption, as well as specifications.
· New Categories in Power Management – a 1 paragraph overview of the new Vista power management policies.
Plus there are some great blog entries out there providing advice in this space:
· Power Management in Windows Vista video - http://blogs.technet.com/tnspot/archive/2007/06/28/spotlight-video-on-demand-pat-stemen-power-management-in-windows-vista.aspx
· Vista Power Savings Case Study link - http://blogs.technet.com/james/archive/2008/04/28/vista-power-saving-stats.aspx
· Screencast: Vista Power Management - http://blogs.technet.com/chrisavis/archive/2007/06/19/screencast-vista-power-management-power-plans.aspx
· Vista Power Management using Group Policy (part 1 & 2) - http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy/archive/2006/08/30/452916.aspx and http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy/archive/2006/09/06/vista-has-the-power-part-two-of-two.aspx
· Windows Vista Virtual Labs links - http://blogs.technet.com/curiousgeorge/archive/2008/05/13/windows-vista-virtual-lab-improve-your-pc-s-power-management.aspx
· Writing a custom power management script - http://blogs.technet.com/fdcc/archive/2008/01/30/script-a-custom-power-management-policy.aspx
· What variations of sleep does my computer support - http://blogs.technet.com/brad_rutkowski/archive/2007/04/18/what-variations-of-sleep-does-my-computer-support-and-why-did-it-wake-up.aspx
· Managing Power with Group Policy - http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2008/03/17/managing-power-with-group-policy-part-1-of-3.aspx
· Video – how much power does your PC consume? - http://edge.technet.com/Media/How-much-power-does-your-PC-consume/
· Power Management and CPU Frequency - http://blogs.msdn.com/richardt/archive/2007/07/11/vista-power-management-cpu-frequency.aspx
- **New** Windows Server 2008 Power Savings Whitepaper & results published!!!
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Microsoft has published a new whitepaper on Windows Server 2008 power savings, and the results and methodologies of the tests run to develop the paper.
This is an excellent document, which outlines the test results (downloadable in separate spreadsheets) and the role of virtualisation in optimising energy efficiencies in your data centres.
Check it out at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=61d493fd-855d-4719-8662-3a40ba3a0a5c&displaylang=en
- New MSDN Environmental Blog: "The Power of Software"
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A new MSDN blog has been created by the Patterns and Practices team, focussing on optimising software development to conserve energy use...
"Welcome to The Power of Software blog, a new undertaking by the patterns & practices team. As you may know, our traditional focus has been on building guidance that helps software architects and developers successfully design and build applications.
This blog is a slight departure from that. We’re exploring ideas relating to Green IT and the ways we, as a company, can use energy more efficiently. Some currently planned subjects include ways to save energy through the use of software and ways to optimize datacenters. All posts will be written or reviewed by subject matter experts, just like other patterns & practices projects.
We hope this starts a dialog with the community—please let us know the topics that interest you."
The first blog post is written by Mike Manos, Head Data Centre honcho, and Christian Belady, Principal Power and Cooling Architect @ Microsoft, on using PUE (a data centre power measurement for energy efficiency). Check it out at: http://blogs.msdn.com/the_power_of_software/
- Microsoft: Green TechReady, Green Partner conference, Green TechEd...
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Within Microsoft recently we have undertaken a number of initiatives to make our events more environmentally friendly. At TechReady, an event for internal softies to attend, they have published a number of initiatives, including:
- All attendees will be given a reusable water bottle to fill at water cooler stations throughout the TechReady venues. Biodegradable cups will also be available at each water cooler station.
- The majority of conference-created collateral, including pocket guides and notepads, will be printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper (processed chlorine-free, printed with vegetable-based ink).
- Badge holders will be collected at the end of the event to be reused at future TechReady events.
- The Conference Store will be stocking a variety of environmentally friendly merchandise.
- Prizes for evaluation completion will include various solar-power gadgets.
- Air-conditioning/heating and lighting will be minimized during off-hours to minimize power consumption.
- Disposable plates and bowls utilized during certain meal times are made of 100% organically-grown bamboo, a renewable and biodegradable material. Cups, napkins and boxed lunch containers are also made with biodegradable and recycled materials.
- Menus will incorporate a variety of locally-grown and organic ingredients. Left-over food will also be donated to area food banks.
They had a similar initiative last year which resulted in:
- Recycled 14,240 pounds of mixed paper, glass, cans and plastic
- Recycled 12,400 pounds of cardboard
- Diverted 26,400 pounds of organic waste from the landfill and sent to compositing facility
- Saved 38,000 disposable water bottles from the waste stream
- 5,000 pounds of leftover food was donated to the Farestart program for those in need
- Nearly 700 badge holders were collected for reuse
At the Microsoft Australia Partner Conference this year, we have an award for Environment and Sustainability Solutions based on the Microsoft Platform. Check out Nick Mayhew’s Partner blog for details – judging will commence soon so if you are a partner, get your submissions in!
And finally in Australia at TechEd 2008 we are planning our own environmentally friendly initiatives – more announcements in this space soon!!!
Although some people might argue this is all contributing to greenwashing, I personally think that if Microsoft can improve the environmental efficiency of their events, it’s a huge boon for everyone, from the people that receive the unused food from the events (homelessness is a massive problem everywhere), to the attendees who can also feel good about recycling and reusing.
- Microsoft Research: Using Computer Prediction Models for Forest Dynamics
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In the IT world we sometimes only see the inside of a data room and a page of code. In this context we might wonder what all the fuss about Environmentally Sustainable IT is. On one hand we can change the data centre to be more energy efficient, on the other side we can use technology to better understand the environment around us and the potential impacts we could hope to avoid. The latter is exactly what researchers at Microsoft Research Cambridge have done this month, publishing two papers in the journal Science this month...
"One, entitled Predictive Models of Forest Dynamics, authored by [Drew] Purves and Stephen Pacala, of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, is an excellent treatment of the state of the art in modeling forest dynamics and its impact on climate prediction. Microsoft Research Cambridge has prepared a video explaining the overview.
The second, Animal Versus Wind Dispersal and the Robustness of Tree Species to Deforestation, examines the response by tree species to the destruction of forests. That paper was based on work conducted at Microsoft Research Cambridge by Daniel Montoya, of the Departamento de Ecología of Spain’s Universidad de Alcalá, under Purves’ supervision, and written with Miguel A. Rodriguez, of the Universidad de Alcalá, and Miguel A. Zavala, of the Centro de Investigación Forestal at Spain’s Institito Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología.This paper, too, is featured in a video."
“By applying various methods in computational data analysis to a large source for forest data,” Montoya says, “we have confirmed that, in Spain at least, plants with animal-dispersed seeds are less vulnerable to habitat loss, because animals provide trees with an intelligent dispersal mechanism, travelling and distributing seeds between areas of remaining forest. In contrast, a wind-dispersal method is more susceptible to habitat loss, as seeds are more likely to fall in inhospitable environments.”
Checkout the full article: http://research.microsoft.com/news/featurestories/publish/ForestModeling.aspx
- To save energy, send your PCs to sleep, then shake them (nicely) awake with Wake on Lan (WoL)
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The team at The Manageability Team Blog have posted a very comprehensive article on how to setup Wake on LAN (WoL) capabilities using System Centre Configuration Manager 2007. WoL enables you do things like implement security patches on PCs that have been sleeping (i.e. saving energy when not being used)...excerpt here:
"Wake-on-LAN (WoL) allows properly configured (BIOS, Operating System, Network Interface Card) machines to resume operation from various sleep modes in response to a network request. The network request comes in the form of a magic packet which is a special formatted network packet. Sleep refers to the low power states of Windows XP and Vista: Standby (S3), Hibernate (S4), and hybrid sleep. Hybrid sleep is a feature of Windows Vista that combines the features of S3 and S4; when entering sleep a hibernate file is saved to the hard disk but the computer resumes from memory unless power is lost. This can create problems if systems like Configuration Manager need to distribute software to a collection of hardware devices. An example would be a Security Patch that needs to be implemented as quickly as possible for a set of vulnerable machines. By combining all the pieces to create a WoL ready infrastructure, you'll end up with an environment that allows networked PCs to be both responsive 24x7 and efficient from a power consumption perspective."
Check out the full article here: http://blogs.technet.com/smsandmom/archive/2008/03/04/configmgr-2007-implementing-wake-on-lan-wol.aspx
- It's about doing the right thing...Westpac on Corporate Social Responsibility
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Last night I attended a Special Interest Group on Corporate Social responsibility, presented by Westpac. There was some great information, which I have distilled down and related back to Green IT on my website:
" "It's about doing the right thing"
This statement is how Alison Ewings started her talk on Westpac's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, presented at the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) on 20th May. Ewings went on to talk about how CSR programs based solely on financial benefits are likely to fail when 'times get tough', usually making them one of the first areas to be cut from budgets, and how it is the 'intangible' value of corporate social responsibility that most benefits business, aligning it back to her initial statement - "It's about doing the right thing".
There were a number of best practices such as developing business principals, internal and external CSR engagement programs and redefining purchasing policies presented, which could be easily converted to Green IT scenarios..."
Based on the Westpac recommendations, four key areas for a greener IT include:
- setting up business principals
- reviewing your IT purchasing policy
- setting up reporting metrics
- setting up a stakeholder framework
Checkout the complete article here: http://www.greenitstrategy.com/index.php?view=article&catid=5%3Apolicies&id=38%3Awestpac-corporate-social-responsibility&option=com_content&Itemid=10
- Microsoft signs MOU with European Environmental Agency on 5 year deal to develop environmental information portal
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Late last week Microsoft signed a MOU with the European Environmental Agency (EEA) for 5 years to develop a portal of environmental information for over 500 million EU citizens.
“Reliable and timely information is vital for making informed personal and policy decisions relating to the fight against climate change and adverse environmental conditions. By improving the availability of information, the EEA aims to better enable policy-makers and citizens to make decisions about the environment and their impact on it. As well as enhancing the availability and presentation of data, the observatory will augment data collection, allowing citizens and non-governmental organisations to play a greater role in gathering environmental information from across the continent. It could also evolve to include real-time satellite information for emergency relief services, as well as for other environmental operations. Microsoft is providing development services to help the EEA extend the focus on important environmental factors that include air, ozone and water quality information.”
More info here: http://www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre/pressreleases/EEAObservatoryPR_14052008.mspx
- Imagine Cup Finalists - Product eGreen Rating
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Every year Microsoft runs the Imagine Cup with students across the world competing for honors. This year the theme is "Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment".
One of the Aussie finalists, "Team iWater" has created a very cool RFID, web-based solution that informs the wider community on how 'green' the product has been through it's entire lifecycle:
"As consumer goods travel through the supply chain - from production, to distribution, to consumption - there are various activities that have a negative effect on the environment. These activities include:
1) The production of the items - factory pollution (chemical and carbon emissions)
2) The transportation of the items - carbon emissions and chemical pollutants, water supply pollutants
3) The transportation of the consumer to the retail store - possible vehicle carbon emissions
4) The consumption of the item
5) Disposal of the items - how easy is it to breakdown, are there any chemicals emitted or toxins leaked
Current solutions to the pollution problem from these activities include the use of energy and water ratings, and monitoring CO2 emissions by factories and suppliers. However, these ratings do not consider the passive consumption of the item, which is how much chemicals and pollution was used to produce the item and transport it to the retail outlet where the item was purchased. Primary production, manufacturing, transport etc. all have a degree of environmental impact. This information would also be important for the consumer to make their decision, it is currently unavailable. Most of the existing rating systems target consumption, ignoring the rest of the supply chain.
The aim of this system is to give consumers information about the environmental impact of the products they buy. This will change consumer behaviour resulting in market forces making it economically essential for producers, distributors, and others in the supply chain to minimise the effect of their activities on the environment. Environmental impact information will be gathered and summarised using the eGreen rating system. The eGreen rating system will integrate products’ environmental impact information from all stages in the product life cycle. Aside from this, the eGreen rating system will allow people to keep track of their individual environmental impact based on the eGreen ratings of the products they have already purchased.
Through the use of Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, consumer goods will be tracked throughout the supply chain. Information regarding the production and distribution of items will be used to calculate an item’s “eGreen Rating”. This information is made available to consumers via a website and in-store scanners. It will provide a straightforward way of making people aware of the full extent of the environmental impact of the products they plan to purchase.
The system is designed to be used by different stakeholders all using the internet to access the eGreen web server to access the website and make use of web services. Based on the client interaction with the web server, information is either added or retrieved from the database. The stakeholders in the manufacturing and distribution roles would be to maintain a list of products and their associated information (disposal, waste, chemicals). The web server uses the Virtual Earth website to display custom maps and store information to consumers."
The final Aussie contenders sent to France will be chosen at Remix in Melbourne on 22nd May.
- "Thin is in" for green computing, but you need to consider the flexibility factor baby...
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There is always a big argument over whether “thin” environments are more energy efficient than traditional ‘rich client’ environments. There is lots of research and speculation out there, but having designed and consulted on thin solutions, I think there is more to the discussion than just client power usage.
Thin clients use less energy?
There is quite a lot of debate over whether thin clients use less energy. And if you believe they do, then you would be right – according to Forrester (2008), thin clients use about 25% less power than a traditional desktop.
However if you are in the market for a thin solution, be careful of claims higher than 25%. Last week one ISV/hardware company was quoted as saying their thin client solution delivered a “75% energy saving over the average PC”. Cool – that’s nice but what they didn’t say is that they aren’t comparing what we in Oz call "apples for apples". As far as I can gather their study only compares direct rich (aka fat) client to thin client. Not what energy the SERVER expends to compensate for thin client computing. Remember that when you change to a thin client model, the SERVER takes over the client processing role. Hence the majority of the energy is spent at the server, not the client. And once you place servers in a data centre, you need to add cooling into the mix. For a fair comparison then, you need to include server energy expenditure AND cooling costs associated with the server farm in the data centre. The aforementioned Forrester study, at a 25% energy (and subsequent carbon) saving, includes the compensation for the server energy and cooling requirements.
Keep flexibility at the top of the requirements list in a desktop client strategy!
This whole Green IT push originally comes from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which has been around for more than 20 years. CSR is not about giving away your entire business profits to green initiatives. It’s about BALANCE. Balance is achieved between three core areas:
- Economic
- Environmental
- Social
The value of each to your business can be determined by some basic analysis. One of these analysis types is called a multi-criteria analysis using a qualitative index, similar to the below example. This is pretty simple, and fairly subjective, but effective for a baseline. Essentially you apply a weighting to each element (economic, environmental and social) adding up to 100. Then for everything except most of the economic metrics (which are calculated by hard financial figures like Net Present Value (NPV)), you assign a rating based on considerations for your specific business:
- "--" = 0
- "-" = 0.25
- "0" = 0.5
- "+" = 0.75 (and so on)
As I said, the assignment of ratings is fairly subjective so if you want statistically real results, be objective. Preferably gather multiple opinions and knowledge across your business. When you assign the rating write good notes on why you have given each rating. Biased ratings don't do anyone favours in the long term.
Then on top of this type of business analysis, consider what is best practice from an IT architecture perspective. There is a tonne of material out there on best practice in a Microsoft world - check out the TechNet Library for per-product information: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/library/default.aspx.
When comparing rich and thin client strategies, this means considering desktop flexibility. I have seen too many companies commit to a particular long term desktop strategy, only to find their business model changes (e.g. through acquisition) and subsequently the defined desktop strategy is no longer viable.
Before you decide that thin client is the saviour to all your problems, one key question to ask is: What is your business user profile?
To provide two common examples:
- If you have lots of CAD or GIS users, then thin client is not generally suitable for them. Graphic intensive applications, even after years of thin technology improvement, typically still don’t do well on thin environments. The exception to this rule, in the future, may be Microsoft's recent purchase of Calista (http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/jan08/01-21VirtualizationAdoptionPR.mspx) which provides presentation virtualisation (terminal services) for graphic intensive apps.
- If you have employees that are frequently disconnected from the network, then thin is not suitable. In Microsoft I look after NSW Government agencies who frequently need to operate in an emergency situation, e.g.a flood-ravaged area where there may be no network connectivity for days to weeks on end. Instead look at technologies like Microsoft Application Virtualisation (aka SoftGrid - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/enterprise/features/tools.mspx). MAV can provide offline application virtualisation (at the same time solving a bevy of application compatibility & packaging issues) while still providing a good measure of centralised application deployment and control. This can be achieved through MAV natively, or System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 to promote a consistent management infrastructure internally.
So if we look at the three CSR factors (economic, environment & social) combined with IT best practice when developing an environmentally sustainable IT strategy, the best recommendation I could make is to consider a balance between each element, suitable for your specific business type.
Something for nothing - Rush; Making Memories - Rush; Starman - David Bowie; All my love - Pink Floyd
- TechNet: Less runs more with Windows Server 2008
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Today on the Microsoft TechNet Australia newsletter, I wrote the editorial with some info around environmentally sustainable IT solutions using Windows Server 2008, SharePoint and Windows Mobile...copied here for those of you who missed out...
"Hi All,
This month Microsoft has let a enviro geek chick into the editorial ranks! And, as such, I just couldn't resist jumping onto the Windows Server 2008 Unleashed site to check out our Windows 2008 pet robot, IT 24-7.
After clicking on Toy Box, I was delighted to find a range of goodies like screensavers of my new friend. And I was also impressed by the wide range of more serious info - case studies and features on manageability, web and stability. All in all, with Windows Server 2008, less can definitely run more.
Power saving and virtualisation are two features I'm really excited about. And if you've been asked by your managers to investigate 'green' or environmentally sustainable IT solutions, you'll be excited about them too! The Virtualisation ROI tool determines power and cooling savings. So you can get that dream Windows 2008 Hyper-V environment, save business dollars, and reduce carbon emissions - all at the same time.
I must admit, I do have two other favourites - Windows Mobile and Microsoft Office SharePoint. I love anything that allows me to work out of the office and, even better, save time and the environment by not driving to work. You can learn all about these great tools on a new website called Gear up. What's more, check out the new Windows Mobile Business Value Calculator which will come in handy when you're building your 'work-out-of-office' business case.
Also check out this useful article about Sustainable Computing from our recent TechNet magazine. It's worth a read!"
- It's Earth Day, and Microsoft have a great new website so you can love it up with the trees...
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So its Earth Day today - what does this mean and what is Microsoft doing to celebrate?
Quite simply, Wikipedia says Earth Day is "...intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment". The earth is affected by everything we do and we are affected by everything on earth in some way - so a day to recognise this justified I think! :)
Microsoft launched a new website today to celebrate: http://www.microsoft.com/environment/ it looks fantastic. Find out here things like:
- How is Microsoft committed to the environment;
- What are the business solutions from Microsoft that you can implement - quite cool here is the Dynamics Dashboard for tracking energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions http://www.microsoft.com/environment/business_solutions/articles/dynamics_ax.aspx - LOVE IT!
- Find out ways to help the environment, through PC energy savings and cool tools;
- Watch a video on best practices for Data Centre management;
- Check Microsoft Environmental news;
- Research the latest Software Showcase from Microsoft Partners.
This is excellent information to help you, my fellow geeks, develop strategies around 'green' or environmentally sustainable IT - think about including environmental information as part of your next business case to help get it up to executive management sign-off - they are all thinking about Corporate Social Responsibility (environment being just one area under CSR) and this might be the tipping point you need to get your dream Unified Communications infrastructure or Windows 2008 Hypervisor environment! ;-)