With Green Envy
September 25, 2007 12:59 PM
Filed Under: Enterprise Information Integration (EII) Virtualization ETL Data Integration
An interesting email debate arose among my Evangelism colleagues today about whether "greening of the data center" was important to Sybase customers.
Opinions varied, some saying that "green" was a consideration that would only resonate with hardware and raised-floor types, and that it didn’t matter much to the software architects. Others argued that membership in the various green data center initiatives will help educate users about Sybase’s commitments to efficient infrastructures and raise visibility. Still others argued that Sybase servers, particularly Sybase IQ, are already "green" solutions and that we’re already reaping those benefits.
Can software "green" the data center?
We’re already seeing it. Take the virtualization juggernaut as an example. Virtualization software allows more efficient use of hardware (along with other benefits) and is perceived value is evidenced by a very robust growth rate for companies like VMWare [who just went IPO].
But what about other parts of the software infrastructure?
Once the low-hanging fruit of server and storage consolidation has been harvested, once the next generation of servers have been studied and selected to reduce energy consumption and rack space, what’s next?
Is hardware efficiency the only way to save kilowatts and Freon? (oops, that’s old-tech – how about R134a refrigerant…). Or will the meaning of "green" have to become synonymous with "cost-efficient" before users and executives will view it as a criteria for software investments?
Some would argue that IT should base buying decisions in-part on social responsibility. Long ago, while working for Apple Computer I watched Apple struggle to justify it’s higher-priced PCs on the basis of user productivity. It was a tough tough and unsuccessful campaign, because it was so hard to measure productivity, and harder to put a value on it. Going green for any reason other than savings in hard, cold cash is likely to enjoy a similarly failure.
For my money, I'd far rather help users understand concrete cost savings in servers, storage devices, electricity and cooling than trying to convince them that going green was itself valuable. Most IT executives demand such concrete factors in any selection process.
Today, where data center costs are only loosely linked to software, we don't have an easy time justifying software by data center efficiency is not a strong selection criteria for software. Not because it’s not important, rather, because it’s hard to justify and often involves groups who don't collaborate much - the raised floor guys and the DBAs, for example. Thus, the level of influence that "greening of the data center" holds over software purchases won't show up until the ROI can be computed and surfaced to the CIO.
So, if virtualization can be justified by the recapture of excess server capacity, it should be a short leap to justify Sybase IQ as a server-saving and storage-saving solution when the prizes are large server capacity improvments and a very significant storage savings made possible by one product.
If we’re to sell "greener" data center technologies, it has to be financially justifiable, and as such, we must help users predict solid, defensible, measurable cost improvements.
If we did this, would it be effective? Can concrete efficiency numbers influence complex software infrastructure decisions? I think it may depend on the organization more often than not.
What do you think? Do you equate "green" with "efficient" when looking at software products? Does your CIO ask about data center costs when evaluating infrastructure software?
Bill
Posted by Bill Jacobs on September 25, 2007 12:59 PM
Comments
Energizer Bunny email - energizer.com
*bang bang bang*
*bang bang bang*
How can you want to REDUCE the amount of energy used in an IT datacenter!
*bang bang bang*
Maybe we should introduce better batteries for these server?
*bang bang bang*
