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The environmental potential of hosted softwareBert van der Zwan, VP EMEA, WebEx, explains the environmental benefits of Software-as-a-Service, and why organisations should take note The issue of climate change has been half-heartedly banded about over the last 20 years with little action being taken. Over the last few years, however, it has been receiving increasing amounts of media attention and rightly so. The Stern Review, published on 30 October 2006, kick-started the environmental revolution when it stated that global warming could shrink the global economy by as much as 20 per cent. More recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that average global temperatures could increase by as much as 6.4C if carbon emissions continue to rise – much higher than previously thought. In the face of this, the UK Government’s draft Climate Change Bill was published in March 2007, setting out a framework for moving the UK to a low-carbon economy. The first of its kind in any country, the bill puts into statute the UK’s targets to reduce carbon emissions through domestic and international action by 60 per cent by 2050 and 26 – 32 per cent by 2020, against a 1990 baseline. It also gives the Government new powers to enable it to easily implement policies to cut carbon emissions. Although the Government is quite rightly leading from the front, the UK will only reach its carbon emissions targets if every business and individual takes the issue of climate change seriously. Before long, businesses could be in a position whereby they have no choice, and have to comply with carbon emission regulations. As well as this external pressure, surveys have shown that consumers are beginning to take environmental factors into consideration when making purchasing decisions and increasingly an organisation’s reputation is linked with the efforts it takes to reduce its carbon footprint. In this situation it’s clear that there’s a major opportunity for organisations to become greener through technology. Most discussion about green IT has focused on reducing the energy that devices consume through more efficient hardware, virtualisation or power management applications. There are also collaborative IT applications such as web conferencing which act as an enabler; helping users work together over the internet and saving carbon emissions by reducing business travel. However, one aspect that hasn’t been explored in such depth is the notion of delivering software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)). Companies coming under pressure to deliver sustainable policies should look more closely at the environmental as well as business benefits it can deliver. Energy, maintenance and accessibility SaaS is not a new phenomenon but its full potential is arguably yet to be explored. Some, including Goldman Sachs (December 2007), have predicted that the subscription-based pricing model of SaaS, which is more immediately affordable than traditional business applications, will help it gain more traction under the current uncertain economic conditions. But its potential to benefit the environment could also push it to the top of the IT buyer’s agenda. By delivering applications over the internet, with the user only requiring a standard browser to access them, a surprising number of savings can be made. Take the supply chain for instance – SaaS requires no packaging, CDs or manuals, and certainly doesn’t need to be physically transported from the factory to its final destination. For many though, the major green selling points of SaaS are energy, maintenance and accessibility. The issue of power consumption is a key factor in all aspects of the green debate – encompassing everything from energy saving lightbulbs to roof mounted wind turbines. In the IT world, most electricity is used powering servers and data centres. Because organisations will naturally maintain some extra capacity on their servers to allow for flexibility and expansion, server utilisation rates are generally low – with 10 to 15 per cent considered the average – meaning a huge amount of electricity is wasted powering highly inefficient systems. SaaS applications can challenge this position because they aren’t based on-premise, with all associated data hosted in one centralised data centre. Running one data centre rather than hundreds of separate, under-utilised servers is a far more efficient use of power. Although SaaS applications currently lean towards areas such as web conferencing and basic business applications like CRM, in the near future we can expect to see all kinds of business software delivered in this way. Server and application maintenance is another major use of energy associated with on-premise IT. Keeping a server room at the optimum cool temperature uses a great deal of energy, so again it is far more efficient to centralise the process in data centres rather than continue in-house. In addition, maintenance of SaaS applications – installation, software updates and patches – can be taken care of remotely by the provider, reducing the number of IT support call-outs and their associated carbon footprint. One of SaaS’ major business benefits is its accessibility: because the software only requires an internet connection it can be used anywhere – from home, at work, or in any wi-fi hotspot  – and is increasingly becoming available on wireless devices such as mobile phones and BlackBerrys. This means users can access the business applications they need whenever they need them, saving valuable time and money and increasing productivity and efficiency. Environmentally though, it also means that users can work far more flexibly and reduce their reliance on travel. For example, if an organisation had implemented a hosted CRM application and a salesperson needed to check a certain customer’s status while on the road, he would not need to make a return trip to the office. Collaborative SaaS applications like web conferencing take this one step further by allowing users to meet with remote colleagues online, sharing any data, presentation, document or application on their computers and communicating through voice and video. As well as allowing regular meetings to take place online, companies can use this technology to deliver training programmes to entire workforces without anyone leaving their desks, or use the application sharing functions for remote support. These types of application can offer not only a way to work from home when convenient but the ability to collaborate effectively with any colleague, partner or client located anywhere in the world without embarking on carbon intensive flights.As the SaaS market develops and more types of application move to the hosted model it’s likely many will be built with similar methodologies and on common architecture, making it simple for multiple business processes to be integrated and for information to be passed from one to another. For users this means a reduced need to print information from one application to be re-entered into another. Combined with the ease of access of SaaS applications from anywhere, this can go a long way to creating a paperless office and further reduce an organisation’s carbon footprint. Climate change’s rise up the political agenda continues unabated and undoubtedly the government will, at some point, have to step in and introduce legislation to ensure carbon emissions are reduced. Before then any organisation can prepare itself for this by adopting sustainable working practices. It’s important to remember though that green IT is not just restricted to energy saving devices – with SaaS applications demonstrating how innovations in delivery and technology can offer organisations environmentally friendly tactics they may not have considered. As a community-building service, TMCnet allows user submitted content which is not always proofed by TMCnet editors. If you feel this entry is of inferior quality or wish to report it for some reason, please forward the URL to "webedit [AT] tmcnet [DOT] com" with your comments. |