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Strong positive responses to the cost saving benefits of new green IT technologieswere seen at ITS FedaÂ's recent annual conferences. Replacing desktop PCÂ's withlower energy consumption thin client devices was an area of particular interest,with two thirds of the attending Educational IT Managers marking it for specialattention.
ITS Feda was originally part of the Further Education Development Agency and dealswith a wide range of academic establishments in the UK, so it is ideally placed tofeel the pulse of educational IT. Penny Price, Managing Director of ITS Feda, said With the debate ongoing about cutting our carbon footprints, new technologies givereal opportunities for our customers to make a substantial change to their energyutilisationÂ
New technological advancements are now offering lower energy usage withoutsacrificing any processing power or speed. The new thin client devices ITS FedaÂ'scollege clients are trialling utilise between just 3 and 5 watts of power. Incomparison current thin client models use 20-30 watts and normal PCÂ's average120-160 watts. The financial savings that can be made by large organisationsreplacing PCÂ's with such high-tech/low-energy devices are as substantial as theenvironmental ones.
Recent examples highlighting this trend include Queen Margaret University inEdinburgh. ITS Feda provided Citrix training to staff involved in their new thin clientimplementation which has just been rolled out across 95% of their current campusesin preparation for their move to a soon-to-be completed eco friendly building.Whilst the ecological motivations behind moves like this are sincere and valued,they travel hand in hand with sound business benefits. With UK academic institutionsserving anything between 1,000 and 30,000 users, the cost of IT energy consumptionin this sector is not calculated in pennies. For example, Enfield College, one of 5colleges currently trialling ITS Feda's new low-energy thin client, is predicting asaving of  13,000 per year on their electricity bill if they adopt their planned1000 units.
Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner noted "Today, energy coststypically form less than 10 percent of an overall IT budget but this could rise tomore than 50 percent in the next few years. Meanwhile a recent Gartner studyconcluded the current use of IT in industry produced the same amount of CO2 as theairline industry. It also stated that the growth in power requirements and levels ofwaste produced renders the current state of affairs unsustainable, recommending that IT organisations develop a strategy to address the current negative effects ofusing ICT.
ITS Feda intelligence suggests that thin client technology may become a front runnerin these nascent strategies.
So it seems that whilst the green lobby is focusing on educating us on green issues,educational IT departments are now firmly focusing on implementing them.
