Sustainable IT be prepared for radical change

Q Can you provide some background on Carbon3 IT – when/why

formed and progress to date?
A I first became aware of the need for sustainability in all areas after a visit to the Eden project in Cornwall in 2003 where I saw a recycled PCB being sold as a mouse mat, I remembering thinking that there has got to be a better way for a computer to end its life, so embarked on a technology with environment and development degree with the Open University, The opportunity came up to take voluntary redundancy in 2009 from my employer and Carbon3IT was born in August 2009.
Q Who are the key personnel involved and what experience do
they bring to the company?
A I am the managing director and consultant with 30 years’ experience in IT, from 1981 when I started as an apprentice in BT, through structured cabling design, bid and project management with Grant & Taylor and Electrical Installations Ltd to rolling out desktops/servers, project management and consultancy with Computacenter. My wife, Rachel, is the operations director and she has many years’ experience in strategy, ISO9001 and business management. She has a MBA from Ashridge Business School.
Q What are the key company milestones to date?
A We obtained EUCoC endorser status in 2010 and now review all EUCoC applications.
We undertook a 7 week trip to Mauritius in 2013 and trained 120 Government of Mauritius personnel in Green IT, and the EUCoC.
We recently took 2 global telecommunications operators through the EUCoC for a number of data centres in the UK.
Q In broad terms, how would you summarise the attributes that
make Carbon3 IT stand out in the market?
A We sit on the BSI IST/46 Sustainability for and by ICT and the NSF ELSS (Energy Star for Servers 2.0) standards committees. I am also the Vice Chair of the Green IT and the treasurer of the Data Centre specialist groups of the BCS. This gives us a unique perspective of the direction of the Green IT industry and this means that our services are world class as we incorporate the latest thinking into our service offerings.
Q Sustainable IT seems to be the bedrock of the Carbon3 IT
offering – how do you define this?
A We use the UK government’s definition of Sustainable IT being as follows:
“By Information and Communications Technology (ICT) we mean, the Equipment, systems, services, technologies and methods (voice, data, visual, digital) used for communicating, processing, managing, using, storing and destroying information.
By Green ICT we mean, the tools, techniques and approaches that reduce the material impact of ICT on the environment across its lifecycle, ranging from the resources and materials used in the manufacture/development of ICT, the conditions under which ICT is manufactured or developed, the delivery of ICT to customers and users, the energy consumed in using ICT, and, the disposal of ICT at the end of its life” (Ref: HMG GDU (Green Delivery Unit))
Q In simple terms, how can organisations work towards
sustainable/Green IT?

A Undertake services from Carbon3IT Ltd! Initially I would recommend undergoing our GreenPrint assessment which will help them understand where they are at now and what steps they could choose to take to improve their sustainability, and ultimately reduce operating costs.
Q Can you tell us a little bit about the company’s GreenPrint
service?

A Greenprint is a full audit of an organisation’s IT estate including strategic direction and governance, the outcome of an audit is in a report of the findings with suggestions on the steps required to achieve a more sustainable IT estate.
Q You also offer companies assistance with their overall Green
IT strategy?

A Yes, we develop the strategy after doing an audit and consulting closely with key staff and the management team. As with all strategy, top level buy in is core to successful achievement of strategy.
Q What are you thoughts on the European Code of Conduct
(EUCOC) for Data Centres, and how do you help organisations
to meet this criteria?

A The EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres (Energy Efficiency) to give it, its full title is a series of best practices to reduce energy consumption in the data centre. However, it is also the catalyst for strategic and cultural change for the whole organisation if it is implemented the right way. We provide a pre review service, in essence a gap analysis, prepare the application form and assist the organisations in achieving as much of the EUCOC given technical and financial constraints. As one of the EU’s reviewers this is obviously quite useful to our clients.
Q Similarly, you offer companies help to address CEEDA. What is
this, and how do you help?

A CEEDA is the Certified Energy Efficient Data Centre Award, a BCS, Chartered Institute for IT certification product, delivered by Datacentre Dynamics globally. It is in essence a subset of the EUCoC along with the Green Grid metrics that externally verifies that a data centre is being operated to the requirements of the EUCoC. As the Lead Assessors/Auditors for the CEEDA programme we are uniquely qualified to assist companies in preparing for a CEEDA assessment.
Q Carbon3 IT also offers more general project management –
what are the areas covered by this?

A I am a certified PRINCE 2 Practitioner and Rachel has the MSP Programme Management Office qualification, this means that our project management offerings are in line with the industry standard. We both have significant levels of experience managing projects myself in IT and Rachel in general business strategy and planning.
Q And you also offer training?

A Yes, we provide bespoke onsite training only for the Foundation Certificate in Green IT and the Intermediate Certificate –EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres. This training was delivered last year in Mauritius to 120 Government of Mauritius personnel, both in the various Ministries and Para-statal bodies.

We’ve just returned from a second training trip delivering the same courses to the private sector over there. If there was interest over here we could put something together, and have offered one to one tuition to some of our contacts.
Q Do you have a portfolio of product/technology suppliers with
whom you work?

A Yes, we do, we have formal relationships with a number of green technology suppliers, Very PC for desktops, ISI Snapshot for inventory management software, a number of energy monitoring equipment suppliers and ICEOTOPE the liquid cooled server solution. We act as lead generators for them. However, as we are independent we only recommend the technology solution not a brand.
Q If so, who are they and how do you go about selecting them in
what is quite a crowded market?

A We try to attend most of the conferences and exhibition’s in our space and quite a few besides to ensure that we are aware of everything that is available in this sector, we then talk to the suppliers to gauge their commitment to product development and customer service and what they can offer us and our customers moving forwards, we also have an internal matrix that we use to select suppliers, but essentially it’s all down to trust and the business relationship, both in the product and the personnel.
Q Does Carbon3 IT get involved in the UK’s G-Cloud initiative?
If so, in what way(s)?

A We’ve been on the G-Cloud since the second framework agreement under lot 4, specialist cloud services; we provide the public sector with a number of products including the ISI Snapshot inventory management software solution and out data centre assessment services for EUCoC and BCS CEEDA.
Q Is the company involved in the Green Grid initiative – and what
are your views on it?

A I’m an individual member of the Green Grid, which gives me access to the latest research and metrics data, we attend the Green Grid EMEA technical forums and all this is to ensure that I’m up to date with the latest developments globally in the data centre energy efficiency space as this we feel adds value to our customers.
Q We can’t talk about energy and the data centre without
mentioning PUE. Do you think it’s a useful measurement index,
and would you like to see it improved in any way?

A Ah, P.U.E, well personally I do not like the way the metric has been hijacked by marketing departments and I would question the way that some organisations actually calculate it, but it is, or can
be an excellent method to baseline your data centres energy use
and then measure improvements that you make, but I do wish
that people would actually read all of the relevant Green Grid
white paper.
Q Do you have any thoughts on the US ASHRAE standard and its
usefulness in the data centre environment?
A I believe that ASHRAE is a very useful standard, as it widened the temperature/humidity ranges and has manufacturer support, but once again people should read all of TC9.9 and not just the headline temp/humidity range as there are some caveats to moving to the allowable ranges.
Q Are there any other useful standards out there that we’ve
missed – or, indeed, the need for any more?!

A The DCA did an analysis of all the applicable standards in the data centre and some that are related, I think the count was some 27 different standards or guidelines, so I think that there is lots of overlap and probably too many right now, perhaps we need a unifying data centre data standard.
Q Is the convergence of facilities and IT a prerequisite of
successful data centre ‘greening’?

A Yes, but not necessarily a deep convergence, facilities should be made aware of the requirements of IT on a regular basis and be prepared and forward thinking enough to be able to provide an environment that caters for the new environmental and energy requirements of IT. The EUCoC calls for a regular meeting of the parties (software, IT, M&E) as its first best practice to evaluate the impact of decisions and act as a Change Board.
Q What other issues need to be taken into account when
addressing energy efficiency in the data centre?

A People. I know that that may sound strange, but if you do not carry your people, and that includes tech staff up to C Suite, through the energy efficiency process and explain the ethos of what you are trying to do, then you will probably never achieve the efficiency gains that you could.

You are in effect trying to change the habits of a lifetime of people whose worldview is uptime and resilience and for whom energy efficiency has never been a primary concern, now however the cost of energy is a large factor to data centre operations so the game has to change, you can provide a 24/7/365 service to customers in an energy efficient manner if you think about it.
Q Can you provide one or two brief examples of how you have
made a difference to customers’ data centres?

A There was a 17% improvement in energy efficiency for one of the CEEDA assessed data centres post assessment, this was as a result of the client gaining a better understanding of the EUCoC and by addressing the CEEDA criteria formally within their organisation through the assessment process. We’re also part way through an optimisation exercise with a global client who has already seen substantial savings, and this is just in soft improvements to working practices, when their capital expenditure programme kicks in they will see somewhere in the region of a 30% improvement in energy efficiency.
Q In conclusion, what are they key pieces of advice you would
give to organisations looking to start out on the road to creating
the optimum energy efficient data centre environment?

A You need to baseline your data centre energy consumption before you start any energy efficiency programme, so you can measure your improvement. For both commercial and enterprise (owned/operate), the use of the freely available EUCoC is an excellent starting point, but be prepared to radically change your thinking with regard to the provision of IT services to your organisation, or as a service to others both strategically and culturally.

For commercial wholesale data centre operators (colo/hosting), be prepared for your customers asking about what energy efficiency measures you have undertaken and look to become endorsers/participants to the EUCoC and look at BCS CEEDA certification. Be proactive about it and get ahead of the game, it could give you a significant market advantage going forward.

You might also consider the engagement of an independent, like
ourselves, for some training and assistance in pre EUCOC/CEEDA
gap analysis so that you can benefit from our knowledge and experience not just of the codes but also of other data centre operating methods.