February 2010 - Posts

• Power Management Design Guide from Climate Savers Computing

  The guys over at Climate Savers Computing (CSC) have released a great little guide on how to design your power management system. CSC was started by Google and Intel in 2007,and is a nonprofit group of eco-conscious consumers, businesses and conservation organizations. The website is a great resource for anyone who is new to PC Power Management and I would recommend this guide as a great starting point. And for anyone else I would still recommend it! At just 30ish pages it's not too detailed, but contains enough pertinent information to get you up to speed quickly. Here's the blurb from their website.. 'The Climate Savers Computing Power Management System Design Guide is a reference document on how to build energy‐efficient, power‐managed client platforms. Specifically, this guide presents guidelines and recommendations to achieve Standby (S3) state reliability, while reducing Standby, Resume and Sleep latencies resulting in positive user experiences. PM implementation depends on successful interactions of the various computer platform elements. This guide will focus on aspects of the computer components, as well as platform design, operating systems and software to achieve consistent, reliable and efficient Standby operations across platforms. It can be used as a reference to build power‐efficient client systems, including the anticipated regulatory ENERGY STAR compliant proxy (Ecma TC38-TG4) devices.' It explains the S3 power state, the user experience (very important!), how to test your machines etc. in a structured easy to follow way. I would thoroughly recommend that you download this guide - and of course our 1E whitepapers such as Why Power Schemes Are Not Enough. With hundreds of thousands of unmanaged desktops still out there, there's no excuse not to get started and save energy (and money) right away.. Downloads CSCI Power Management System Design 1E Why Power Schemes Are Not Enough 1E NightWatchman Pages Posted Feb 23 2010, 04:59 AM by 1E Business Blogs Filed under: 1E Products, Green IT, PC Power Management

• One Man's Cow Poo..

  I attended a funeral recently, of a farming neighbour who passed away at the ripe old age of 82. The local Vicar was a great friend of Bill’s and Bill used to mow the grass around the church. One day Bill was cycling past the vicarage and the vicar was sweeping leaves outside. ‘Look at me Bill, with all my ecclesiastical training and here I am, a road sweeper.’ To which Bill replied ‘Don’t worry Vicar, I’ve been a toilet attendant to a bunch of cows for the last 60 years!’ He will be missed.. Talk turns dirty At the wake in the village pub we were laughing at that amusing anecdote about Bill (and others that cannot be reprinted here) and talking about cow poo, as farmers do after a couple of drinks.  As farms amalgamate and herd sizes increase, the handling of waste becomes a bigger problem too. Of course you want to make use of the nutrients in manure but in Winter the land is usually too wet to get out and spread it so we have to store it somewhere. One of my neighbours is about to build a new one million litre store at quite a cost, and this seems to be a necessary trend as new anti-pollution laws are dictating how this waste is stored in order to prevent pollution of our rivers and watercourses. However, as the saying goes, ‘one man’s cow poo is another man’s fuel’. You haven’t heard that one? Well read on. Biogas production from farm (and other) waste is an exciting technology that seems to have a much higher uptake in some parts of the world than others. Here’s the principle – you take any type of organic waste, cow poo, food waste, plants etc, and you place it into an anaerobic digester. This is an airtight chamber, essentially the same environment as a cow’s rumen (stomach) in which the ‘digestion’ process takes place. The product of this process is biogas, which is mostly methane, and which can be either burned as gas, or used to produce electricity. This technology has been in use in China for  over 30 years , with many  farms and rural households making this their only source of energy other than the sun. In Germany too the adoption of biogas has been promising due partly to the state’s financial support of the small scale renewables sector. In the US however uptake has been slower because the subsidies received by biogas production are a lot less that hose for wind or solar. Why should be care what happens to our cow’s poo I hear you ask? Well there are two reasons really. Firstly it’s just an efficient way of generating energy from a fuel source that is plentiful (unlike fossil fuels). In a way you are simply harnessing the sun’s energy that was used to grow the grass that was eaten by the cow and so on and so on. Great nutrient cycling. Another important reason for supporting this type of energy generation the fact that is it mitigating some of the methane emissions that would otherwise be contributing to global warming. Finally you end up with a by-product that is a great fertiliser. Oh, and it also reduces smells which must be a good thing if you live right next to a large dairy farm! Small biogas plants are starting to appear all over the place now, and as well as farms, communities can benefit too. By forming an energy co-operative, some small towns are taking the bull by the horns and using local food, garden, and other wastes to power biogas plants that supply gas and/or electricity to the town.  The introduction of Feed in Tariffs (FIT) here in the UK is expected to kick start many of these types of project. FITs reward small scale generation of this type by paying a guaranteed price per KWh of electricity generated, regardless of whether you use the electricity yourself. So if you are a farm for instance, you can setup a biogas plant, use the electricity generated to power the farm dairy and export any surplus to the grid. The beauty of FITs is that you get paid for everything that you generate regardless of whether you use it or not. One Scottish farmer is already planning to power a fleet of milk delivery vehicles using electricity from his biogas plant as well as powering all of the milking equipment on the farm. In the future I can foresee many other projects of this type on both small and large scales. It’s such a great all round technology, you never know, next time you go to turn on a light, there may just be a cow somewhere to thank for it! Posted Feb 22 2010, 06:29 PM by 1E Business Blogs Filed under: Musings

• The Great Green Hope

  For many of you, the issue of climate change and global warming will not be new. It is widely accepted by scientists and leading minds around the world, that our climate is radically changing and that we, humans, are primarily to blame.Greenhouse gasses and CO2 emissions are damaging our atmosphere, choking plants and animals and slowly raising the temperature of our planet. In addition, we have a finite amount of resources which we seem intent on consuming as if they were limitless. However,despite painting a stark picture of the situation we find ourselves in, all is not lost. Governments around the world are becoming more and more aware of the plight of the planet and making difficult decisions today to preserve the world for future generations. Companies are becoming increasingly aware and concerned with their ‘Green Footprint’; how much impact their existence has on the planet. Oil giants are investing more and more time and money into looking forways we can overcome our insatiable hunger for fossil fuels which are set to run out in our children’s lifetime. The UN held climate change talks in Copenhagen (COP15), in December 09, which was attended by a number of world leaders including US President Obama. The goal was to unite developing and developed countries in their quest for climate change,specifically by discussing and agreeing carbon emissions reductions targets.  On the surface, this seems like a simple goal but unfortunately we, in the western world, have all become addicted to energy and weaning us off of our need proves increasingly difficult. Take the US for example, which consumed 21% of the total yearly consumption of oil in 2007 and is well known to have a thirst for gasoline. However, even in these stark figures, there is positive change inmotion. Compare the 21% consumption figure in 2007 to the fact that in 2004,the US consumed 24% and you can see that even consumers such as the US aremaking positive steps to curb their demand. And incidentally, 3% ofapproximately 30 billion barrels is still a whole lot of oil that’s been saved. The resulting Copenhagen Accord, despite not being the legally binding treaty which weexpected could supersede the Kyoto Protocol, is a framework for future UNClimate Change negotiations and national policies on climate change adaptation and mitigation.  Overall, we’re optimistic about the achievements of the recent Copenhagen Climate ChangeSummit because what we do have as a result of the talks are commitments to: increase climate funds from $10bn to $100 billion limit increases in global temperatures to 2 degrees centigrade make deep cuts in GHG emissions (although the accord contains no country-specific, legally-binding targets for future GHG emissions reductions, we did get initial nods towards making a positive change in terms of reducing carbon emissions from important countries like China, India and the US - countries that had not previously made such commitments - ahead of the summit) devote senior-level time and energy to the issue from the various heads of state create a Technology Mechanism designed to accelerate the development and transfer of technologies to reduce GHG emissions and to help developing countries with their climate change adaptation efforts (although we await more details on this from the UN’s working groups) So where does that leave us?  The thing to watch out for now is whether or not the accord becomes something that is legally binding.Then, we can start pushing for a clearer legislation around climate change/carbon emissions reductions for business and the technology tools thatcan be used to facilitate this. We choose to believe that with the right resolve and funding invested in new technologies and manufacturing techniques that reduce emissions and energy consumption rather than add to them, we stillhave time to make things right. Posted Feb 11 2010, 01:49 PM by 1E Business Blogs Filed under: Green IT, Musings

• How to Make Security Patch Deployments in 3 Easy Steps!

  Here’s a step-by-step recap of a very simple process to do security patching, in 3 simple steps! This also assumes having first created a Deployment Template where no “Collection” was specified when created (I’m using “Lab SW Deployment” here; there is nothing fancy in it's configuration at all):   1.       Select desired updates for deployment (this example uses a 3 month period of updates) in CfgMgr MMC Console using a SEARCH folder a.       SW Updates --> Update Repository --> Search Folders b.       R-click --> New Search Folder c.       In the wizard, select “Date Released” --> Date Released=Last 3 months; Vendor= Microsoft; and Search All Folders Under This Feature (and give the folder a name)   d.       Sort the resulting list created by “Required” column (descending so all needed updates are at the top of the list) e.       Select all “Required” updates; r-click and select “Update List” to create a new Update List (“Lab SW Update List” in my example) f.       Launch the Update List Wizard to “Create a new update list” g.      Next, next, next, Finish – very simple and straightforward 2.       Navigatein the Consle to the Update List --> Lab SW Update List and select your new Update List a.       Don’t forget to refresh console to display the new list! 3.       Now simply DRAG-n-DROP the “Lab SW Update List” onto the desired Deployment Template (“Lab SW Deployment” in my example) a.       This “Drop” launches the “Deploy Software Updates Wizard” and deploy as usual/desired. b.        Done! So this becomes nearly as simple as 1/2/3 (create a desired Deployment template first): 1. Create a Search Folder and select desired timeframe for Updates required; 2. Create an Update list of all “Required” updates 3. Drag the new Update List onto the desired Deployment template to launch the DSUW, and DONE Posted Feb 05 2010, 09:49 AM by 1E Blogs Filed under: ConfigMgr

• It's Not Easy Being Green

  It’s not easy being green – is the name of a popular TV series here in the UK. It’s also an increasingly popular mantra around these parts. Having just returned from a trip to my local recycling depot, I’m feeling a little ashamed, and before you even  think it, no, I didn’t deliberately put my green bottles in the brown bin. Nor is it related to the amount of empty beer cans deposited (I just buy kegs now to save the embarrassment). No, for this trip I rounded up all of the redundant IT and telephony equipment at Hillside Farm. The depot has recently started to accept all manner of household electrical and IT equipment for reuse/recycling, and it was quite eye-watering to see the amount of ‘stuff’ that was being hurled into a giant 20 ton dumpster. There were the usual toasters, kettles, TVs, VCRs, but also Dell laptops, old broadband routers, modems, you name it, it was in there. This got me thinking more about the total lifecycle of the gadgets and IT equipment we use. Here at 1E central, we’re very much focussed on energy conservation based around the way that desktops and servers are used. NightWatchman has been merrily turning off PCs for over 8 years now, and saving thousands of tons of CO2 and money into the bargain. NightWatchman Server Edition is tackling the same energy waste in the datacenter. But just how much energy is used in the manufacture of these devices? And how much is used in the life time use and ultimate disposal? Health and Safety WARNING:The answers to these questions, and some of the following  statistics in this article may make you involuntarily spit coffee/fizzy drink/water over your keyboard. And that keyboard that you merrily bash away at day after day, spilling your sandwich and cookie crumbs between the keys, well, it deserve better.. Embodied Energy.Huh? I asked a few friends if they knew what this meant. There were more blank stares than an America’s Got Talent judging panel.. Embodied energy is quite simply the available energy that was used during the manufacture of a product. Take the ubiquitous car for instance. A car uses far more energy in its lifetime in burning gasoline than was used in its production. As does a light bulb and many other simple-to-make but high energy consuming devices. This was the accepted way of things until not so long ago. So let’s move onto more familiar ground, namely the computer. The great thing about this type of research is that you can be 90% sure that someone has already done the hard work. You just have to find the report. As a complete aside to all of this, did you know that performing a single Google search produces 7 grams of CO2? Really. A 2004 report by the good old IEEE stated that a standard desktop computer and 17 inch monitor takes 290kg of fossil fuel to manufacture. You can read the full synopsis here, but in summary, a desktop computer’s total energy use can be broken down into 83% for manufacture and a measly 17% in usage. Why is this? Consider the usual corporate lifecycle of a desktop of around three years. Most of our larger customers certainly seem to work on a three year refresh cycle. So it’s the short lifespan on hi-tech equipment that accounts for this crazy imbalance.  I mean my laptop is much more efficient in energy use than my TV, but chances are that my TV will be around for a few years longer (sadly) than my cheapo disposable laptop. That’s not all.. So it takes 12kg of fuel to make 1kg of computer. That in itself I found quite shocking, given that fuel is a finite resource, and some people seem to change computers more often than their underwear these days. How about this little nugget then. It takes 800kg of fuel to produce 1kg of memory chips.  So you can immediately see that although we don’t actually need 1kg of memory chips in a PC (no, not even for gaming), the manufacturing energy requirement of all of the various chips in a computer accounts for a huge proportion of its lifetime energy usage. Or put it another way – the energy required to manufacture the 2Gigabytes of RAM in the laptop on which I am now typing would be enough to power it for 1,000 days. Non stop. It’s not just energy that is required in the manufacturing process of course. I know that chip manufacture required a fair amount of water, but what I didn’t realise is that the stuff that comes out of the tap for you and I to drink is not pure enough. Oh no. It has to be what is known as Ultra Pure Water (UPW), which in itself requires all kinds of purification and filtration in order to meet the strict requirements of semiconductor manufacture. The danger is that any energy savings that we achieve by using products such as NightWatchman will be quickly negated by the enormous carbon footprint both pre and post use. Turning for a moment to the home market, it looks like things here are really careering down a hill in an extremely out of control manner. According to a report by the UK Energy Saving Trust, by 2010 (i.e. now) the Consumer Electronics sector will be the biggest single user of domestic electricity, overtaking the traditionally high consuming sectors of cold appliances and lighting. If that doesn’t widen your eyes a little, it also states that by 2020, entertainment, computers and gadgets will account for an extraordinary 45 per cent of electricity used in the home. To put that in tangible terms, it means that here in the UK we will need 14 power stations just to power all our gadgets. And now for some good news! Finally.. Now I feel like I need to introduce a little light into this article before you all rush out into the street and start an IPhone bonfire. It’s not all bad. Some of the gadgets and equipment that we are talking about bring enormous benefits to the world. Think of the amazing computer controlled medical gadgetry that is now available, we have robot surgeons,  tiny defibrillators that can be carried anywhere ( I saw one being used successfully on a plane at 30,000ft) , and I am also currently drinking coffee from a tiny machine that sits on my worktop and spits out the most beautiful brew at the touch of a button. In fact the people at Smart2020 released a report that states that although energy use and therefore CO2 emissions are on the increase, the advent of smart grids, smart building controls and smart cars will achieve savings in the region of 7-8 Gigatons (that’s a lot btw in case you were wondering). Other resources can be conserved too. I wonder how many trees the Kindle has saved from the chainsaw? The report concludes: "The scale of emission reductions that could be enabled by the smart integration of ICT into new ways of operating living, working, learning and travelling, makes the sector a key player in the fight against climate change, despite its own growing footprint." What can we do? We as ICT users need to monitor energy consumption and emissions in real time, so that we can to optimise our equipment for energy efficiency. Solutions like our own NightWatchman have been doing this for years. Also we can look more closely at the lifecycle of our equipment. The standard three year cycle of corporate desktop computers is largely to blame for the high overall energy cost. I a PC were in use for another 5 years then the energy used in the manufacture would be more justifiable . So why not see if there is a scheme that will take on these redundant PCs and maybe hand them down to schools or other organizations that do not require such cutting edge specifications? Remember, recycling is always better than disposal. At home, perhaps we can slow down a little and hang on to our latest phone a bit longer, or maybe you could live without that 50inch TV, and go for a walk instead? Just a thought.. Some further reading - Gadgets and Gigawatts - Policies for Energy Efficient Electronics Posted Feb 04 2010, 09:54 AM by 1E Business Blogs Filed under: Green IT

• Free 'Greening IT' Book - Update

  If you are interested in Green IT in any shape or form, you should have come across the 'Greening IT' project/book. If you haven't yet, then you are missing out on a valuable resource. The concept is a good one - get lots of writers together who are passionate and knowledgeable about the many and varied aspect of Green IT, get them to write about their individual area of expertise, and then release it. For Free. The idea is to invite contributing authors in a collaborative effort to cover as many areas of Green IT as possible, as opposed to one guy sitting in a room for months, doing tons of research, then emerging in his Metallica t-shirt smelling slightly of cheesy puffs holding a piece of work that is already out of date.. Each release of the work contains more and more interesting chapters. Here is the latest list. Our Tools Will Not Save Us This Time - by Laurent Liscia Climate Change and the Low Carbon Society - by Irene N. Sobotta Why Green IT Is Hard - An Ecomonic Perspective -by Rien Dijkstra Cloud Computing - by Adrian Sobotta Thin Client Computing - by Sean Whetstone Smart Grid - by Adrian Sobotta How IT Contributes to the Greening of the Grid - by Dr. George W. Arnold Green IT Industry Review - by Ariane Rüdiger Out of The Box Ways IT Can Help to Preserve Nature and Reduce CO2 Simultaneously - By Flavia Souza Now check out that last chapter title! If that doesn't stimulate your curiosity then nothing will, and a great, thought provoking piece it is too. in it, Flavia talks about the less obvious ways in which IT is already helping many causes in the fight against climate change and injustice. Homer Simpson does Green IT? No, just a typo.. Finally, I think that we can all agree that the subject of Green IT can be a little dry at times. So I had to laugh a little when I came across an erroneous link  in Ariane Rüdiger's Green IT Industry Review. In her piece, she mentions a government sponsored Green IT platform - Deutsche Umwelthilfe - http://www.duh.de/ Unfortunately the URL provided is http://www.duh.org/ - 'Pointing out the obvious since 1994..'!? Download the book, it's in PDF format and at just under 200 pages an easy and pleasant read. And if you think you could, why not contribute? Posted Feb 01 2010, 09:01 AM by 1E Business Blogs Filed under: Green IT