Accenture (News - Alert) announced that it is introducing a set of tools designed to help an organization assess the environmental impact of its IT infrastructure. Called the Accenture Green Technology Suite, the tools analyze the impact of changing a data center's configuration and how it can help reduce the overall power use and carbon footprint of the organization.
When studying an organization's data center, Accenture studies three factors: cost reduction, increasing service levels or mitigating risk. The Green Technology Suite adds another ‘green’ factor by examining how green technologies can have an impact on cost, risk or service levels.
"It enables us to essentially craft a green IT roadmap to allow the client to take steps to not only reduce the carbon footprint but also take costs out of the environment," said Rockwell Bonecutter, managing partner for data center technology and operations practice at Accenture.
The Accenture Green Technology Suite consists of three parts. The first part is the Accenture Green Maturity Model, which assesses a company's practices, equipment, policies and environment. By asking 300 questions on the various aspects of the company, facts are collected and evaluated. The resultant data is then turned into a score card to rate the company’s overall environmental standing. The computations can then be compared against that of other firms, if required.
The Data Center Estimator is used by Accenture consultants to create "what if" scenarios and to provide an assessment of the energy reduction strategies related to cooling, power distribution and IT infrastructure power requirements such as server, storage, and networking components.
Similar to the Data Center Estimator is the Workplace Estimator which looks at the individual employees of a company to evaluate their work habits, technology recycling, travel policy, among others. It helps companies develop recycling and energy saving policies for personal computers and procuring new equipment with energy efficiency in mind. It can thus be used to adopt a green agenda in the company and implement energy saving policies.
Bonecutter emphasized that unlike other technologies such as virtualization, server consolidation or new cooling techniques, Accenture Green Technology Suite gives a holistic perspective by showing the exact financial impact of adopting environmental friendly changes. Companies can thus know exactly what changes will impact the bottom line positively and also identify what the effect on the environment is likely to be.
Pointing out that it was often difficult to quantify the amount of savings and that sometimes it takes time for the return on investment to be shown, Bonecutter said the Green Technology Suite has a dashboard that shows in real time what the power and financial savings will be, so the strategists can adjust their data center mix to see the exact bearing on their company’s bottom line.
The suite has power information for a wide variety of enterprise IT hardware, like IBM (News - Alert) and HP servers, cooling devices, switches and other equipment found in a datacenter. Each piece has a power rating, companies can choose their policy depending on which scenario benefits both power and profits most efficiently.
"It really empowers you to say as an IT exec 'I need x amount of dollars, this is why I need it,' and say with confidence when you will be net cash flow positive because of these changes you will introduce," said Bonecutter.
Nitya Prashant is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Nitya’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
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