Power issues

HEWLETT-PACKARD:Many businesses are trying to reduce their impact on the environment, with Hewlett-Packard setting itself ambitious goals to become greener

Going green is no longer a trend or a fad, it is now a must for businesses wishing to run economically and efficiently. Hewlett-Packard (HP) Ireland is now catering for the individuals with a strong environmental conscience, as well as the larger corporations who are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint.

HP have set themselves demanding goals in reducing the overall environmental impact of their operations and are working with internal technology development resources such as HP Labs and organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund to achieve this.

In this regard, HP are leading by example, says Andrew Fuller, ISS product manager at HP Ireland.

"I'm fairly convinced that we are at the forefront of these movements. HP was very much a leader in this area from the start, and even looking back to the development of our Leixlip plant, it was designed with that kind of functionality in mind," he explains.

HP has a worldwide goal to cut its global energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2010. While this is one of the most ambitious targets that has been set by a multinational, HP are already ahead of target, explains Fuller.

The massive power cuts experienced in Silicon Valley over the past couple of years demonstrated the practical need to cut down on energy consumption, says Fuller.

Similarly the regulator here has specified that power provision companies in Ireland must take initiatives to encourage their major users to take the necessary steps to reduce usage, he adds.

"The power companies would love to sell you more energy - they just don't have the capacity," he explains.

Worldwide in 2006, HP purchased 11 million kWh of renewable energy; in 2007, figures show that that increased to 50 million kWh, a 350 per cent increase.

In Ireland, last year HP signed an agreement with Airtricity to move to almost 90 per cent wind energy.

This will amount to an annual saving of more than 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent to taking 9,600 cars off the road, says Fuller.

The move also makes good financial sense, with HP anticipating annual savings of at least €30,000 from one of the largest operating expenses, he adds.

"We are practising what we preach," says Fuller, adding that HP will be announcing further initiatives within this area in the next couple of months.

While it is now the norm to save energy by using screensavers, functions such as auto sleep and even simply switching off computers, the latest in green technology is now being incorporated into the hardware.

As the server is the workhorse of any business nowadays, running internet, e-mail and printers, huge savings can be made by its efficient running, explains Fuller.

One problem is that servers are usually utilised to just 10 per cent of their full capacity, he says.

To this end, HP has created a technique called "virtualisation", whereby older machines are combined to create a "virtual machine" on top.

This means that utilisation can be driven up to between 60-70 per cent, as when one machine is not working, the capacity can be used by another, explains Fuller.

"You have less computers as you consolidate them in one area, which makes them more efficient to cool."

Energy inefficiency is also due to the design of the computer architecture, he adds.

"Some of this would be as inefficient as the old-fashioned lightbulb is. Over 85 per cent of the energy is used to create heat and then cool the system again."

Indeed, server cooling techniques are often one of the greatest drivers of environmental costs in a business.

The HP BladeSystem is an ultra-dense server system that consumes 27 per cent less energy than its nearest competitor.

"It uses industry-standard components but in an intelligent way," says Fuller.

The innovative design involves air extraction rather than a cooling fan and is the subject of more than 20 patents and much imitation within the industry.

This latest example of green technology represents a new approach that significantly reduces the power consumption and required airflow for data centres requiring fully-featured, high-density servers.

Upgrading servers to the latest Quad-core processors can reduce energy consumption by more than 60 per cent while delivering increased performance, in all levels of business, including the SME space, explains Fuller.

"A lot of the things we do is at the enterprise level, where the savings are massive, but this technology can actually permeate down to the guy that's perhaps just got one server running his internet."

The processor runs at a much slower speed, but can swap to the higher power mode if the server load increases with no performance degradation.

According to Fuller, tests and practice have shown that even in a simple server environment, energy savings of up to €350 per server over a 3-year period are possible. "That's not insignificant," he says, adding that users do not even notice their technology running in a low power state except in their reduced energy bill.