Jenaly Technology Group’s CTO, MJ Shoer, explores some Green IT basics by focusing in on three ways businesses can improve their impact on the environment and cut the cost of their tech operations.

Covered are server virtualization, electronic documents (aka paperless office), and one of my personal favorites, power management.

Another green technology is power management, which allows computers to sleep or hibernate when not in use. Unless you access your computer remotely from home or when traveling, it does not need to stay on every night and all weekend. That consumes electricity and generates heat, which necessitates cooling, although this could be considered a good thing during our coldest winter months. All newer computers allow it to power down when not in use and still allow critical proactive maintenance tasks to take place over night by “waking” the PC when these activities need to take place and then powering it back down when complete. It’s also important to keep in mind that even when powered down, a computer still draws electricity, though a much smaller amount.

Among the lowest of hanging fruit, power management is something that both users and administrators can easily participate in. And with Wake-on-LAN, those maintenance and remote access duties (via VPN and other remote desktop software) don’t require a PC to remain fully powered all day.

Basic stuff, but it’s a good foundation for firms looking to cut those energy costs.

Source: Seacoast Online