Symantec's contribution to Green IT

Jose Iglesias, vice president Global Solutions at Symantec told CRN that demand for Green solutions is increasing as organisations are faced with the high energy costs of data centres as well as government legislation compelling them to be more eco-friendly.

“There’s been a sharp increase in companies wanting to know how we can help them reduce their carbon footprint,” said Iglesias. “There’s a groundswell of interest in Green IT that comes from legislation – the type the EU has in place. Of course there are also selfish reasons such as addressing the spiralling cost of electricity.”

He added that a sense of corporate responsibility is gaining momentum and driving the adoption of Green practices, however government legislation remains the primary motivator.

“The EU has probably taken the most proactive action in reducing the carbon footprint of IT and it is having a domino effect across the industry,” said Iglesias.

According to Iglesias, Symantec’s role in the Green movement is inherent in the vendor’s storage and software solutions.

“The unique value proposition from Symantec is to keep the hardware you have energy efficient,” he said.

He explained that the ability to power down standby machines is a key innovation from Symantec in reducing the energy consumption of data centres. The vendor is also involved in developing data de-duplication technology.

“We provide the capability to reduce energy consumption without reducing efficiency by decreasing the energy consumed by standby machines,” said Iglesias. “Symantec is also investing in de-duplication technology. Where large storage is being utilised, this technology can significantly reduce the amount of storage being used.”

Other focus areas include reducing the energy footprint of laptops and desktops by applying the same ‘powering down’ principles to put a device and its peripherals to sleep. He offered the example of organisations where machines remain turned on overnight to download updates and undergo other forms of maintenance.

“Symantec offers the capability to put the device to sleep, start up again when new updates are coming through, then put it to sleep when it’s done, which reduces the energy costs of the laptop or desktop,” he said.

Iglesias claimed that one of the key problems facing businesses is how to design a data centre when it is difficult to predict at what rate and to what size an organisation will grow.

“IT keeps growing with the business, so you can grow the amount of storage 10 times year over year,” he said.

Symantec is also eager to boost its reputation as an innovator in the Green space and not be viewed as simply another vendor that has jumped on the environmental bandwagon.

“We want to make sure people don’t think we’re just green washing our products, they have demonstrable value,” said Iglesias.

Although based in the United States, Iglesias commented that Australia has made leaps and bounds in the Green arena.

“The unique thing about Australia is that it's embracing world standards to drive down carbon emissions,” he said. “Australia took the initiative with the Kyoto protocol, indicating a willingness to embrace such an important agreement.”

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