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The Greening of IT

The Greening of IT. Richard Mapperley IT Manager The Sixth Form College Solihull. Overview. This Presentation… Is not specifically about “ Green ” practices Is about some practical approaches adopted over time at Solihull 6 th Form College Could be applied elsewhere

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The Greening of IT

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  1. The Greening of IT Richard Mapperley IT Manager The Sixth Form College Solihull

  2. Overview This Presentation… • Is not specifically about “Green” practices • Is about some practical approaches adopted over time at Solihull 6th Form College • Could be applied elsewhere • Is not exhaustive by any means! • Is followed by a discussion

  3. Solihull Sixth Form College • Approx. 2500 Students (Down from 2900) • Approx. 270 Staff (F/T and P/T) • Approx. 1050 Workstations (Down from 1150) • 16 physical servers (Down from 22) • Reducing number of switches (due to 48 port instead of 24 port switches) • Average of 20 student PCs in IT suites • 5 year lifecycle expected from PCs

  4. Electricity Annual spend approx. £115k Pricing expected to increase by approx. 7.5% to 10% effective 01.10.11 Changed from Green to Brown electricity to save money in January 2011 Green Electricity = Wind Farms etc. Brown Electricity = Fossil Fuels

  5. Electricity Sample Cost Scale Day Rate = 7.224p (ex VAT) Night rate = 4.64p (ex VAT) Assumptions Day Period = 07.30am – 00:30am Working day = 8am – 5pm = 8 hours 1 PC = 60W (average load) 1 monitor = 20W 177 days potential use of IT suite PC Guess the approximate annual electricity costs of one PC?

  6. Guess the Cost? £8.18 Per Year 1000 PCs = £8180 Per Year

  7. The Past (Pre 2006) • Not worried about power consumption • No worries about disposal (other than making sure the equipment doesn’t end up in illegal dumps!) • Expanding IT estate • Less budget worries • Fewer desktops (730) • Virtual desktops/servers were not common

  8. IT Manager Role. (The Past) • Responsible for the provision of stable IT platforms and infrastructure for teaching and learning • PCs and software • Servers and software • Printers and audit software

  9. The Problems (The Past) • Software deployment showed a lag between advertisement and successful installation. Why was this? • Cooling rooms with more IT equipment • IT Tenders didn’t include detailed evaluations of green credentials • Little proof either way that the provision of more IT equipment related to measurable better results

  10. Usage Baseline • How to measure usage which would generate a baseline for showing savings? • Used timestamps recorded at Windows start up, log on, log off and shutdown by scripts running via AD group policies • Script pushes timestamps to central database • Queries run against database presented on a web page for selected staff Some example Web Pages follow.

  11. Please read the slide notes for appropriate context.

  12. Investigation Findings • Some PCs were not turned on for long enough to finish updating, especially laptops • Some PCs were not turned on at all • 1 PC had been stolen 8 months previously • Laptops were used outside of normal working hours but not greatly

  13. Unintended Findings • Can be used to indicate the last user of a PC before damage, theft or system abuse • Reveals most/least used PCs in a classroom • Reliability and user training issues revealed by number of Start-up’s > Shutdown’s • Reveals how long machine sits at a logon prompt wasting power

  14. Other Initiatives/Problems Solved • Regular task set up to run a script to shut down idle PCs sitting at the logon prompt • Finance director spotted the results of this on the electricity bills • Not running as often now due to teacher comments • Windows 7 migration will include power policies • Disposed of old CRT monitors • Saved approx. 60W an hour and less heat generated so less air conditioning

  15. Other Green Initiatives • PC tender process now includes power usage scoring • Remote access using Citrix/Terminal services • Less staff in the buildings after hours consuming power and heat • College shuts down buildings during breaks • Consolidated services onto fewer servers • About to start project to use server virtualisation even more than now

  16. Other Green Initiatives • Used APC racks with managed ventilation • Fitted thermostats to all radiators on site • Applied films to windows • Any refitting includes motion sensitive lights • Better insulation on modular buildings • Less printers and better print management system in the pipeline

  17. Near Future • Web developers migrating paper based forms to web based forms • Possible design/buy a document management system • Further reduction in number of PCs and laptops • Increase in user owned devices • Embed an awareness of green initiatives in all processes where possible • Submitted capital costs also show annual cost to the college. For example, 1xPC = £127 per year ; 1xMac = £168 per year

  18. Far Future • Servers move into the cloud/Other institutions • Back-up to the cloud/Other institutions • Subsidised user devices Discussion

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