A Blog byJoev

BT’s Approach to Climate Change

Last week I saw Ted Shann, Head of Sustainability Practice for BT Global Services, present BT’s approach to Climate Change. In a nutshell BT aim to:

• Reduce their own footprint
• Influence their suppliers
• Help their customers
• Engage their employees

Ted shared some great examples of how their approach has saved money for the business and generating revenue through services to assist their customers achieve similar outcomes. This includes best practices in Procurement, Agile working, as well as provision of hosted services such as partnering with Microsoft on Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

Another superb example of the role of ICT in reducing carbon emissions through dematerialisation was well demonstrated through the NHS use of BT’s highspeed network to  revolutionise medical diagnostics. Check out the video.

Here are some great examples of real savings….

BT Global Services also offer a Carbon Impact Assessment to help business baseline their current position.

See BT’s Sustainability Channel on Youtube for more info

Green IT Expo 2009 - UK

Come see us at the Green IT Expo 2009, Barbican Exhibition Centre, London on 10th/11th Nov. Ask us about Microsoft approach to Environmental Sustainability and how we can help Reduce, Manage and Rethink!

Check out Microsoft UK Environment Website

“85% of IT professionals believe environmental factors are important in planning IT operations, yet just a quarter have written green criteria into their company’s purchasing processes.”
Source - Forrester Research

Morning Highlights:

With additional sessions from 1E, Cisco, IBM, Sun / Bell Microsystems and more.

Afternoon Highlights:

PLUS senior speakers from the European Commission, DEFRA, Microsoft, live videoconferencing case studies, a special industry debate and the second annual Green IT Expo Awards

Microsoft UK launches Environmental Sustainability website

Microsoft UK launches Environmental Sustainability website
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/environment/default.aspx

Have a look around the site and discover our strategies:

• To reduce our own carbon footprint by improving the sustainability of our business operations and working practices.
• To reduce the current impact of IT on global carbon emissions, in partnership with our industry peers.
• To implement innovation for the benefit of the environment, by helping people and organisations around the world reduce their carbon footprint and reduce emissions.

Microsoft’s LifeCam Cinema – supports 720p HD Video.

LifeCam Cinema was announced recently. This is the first consumer webcam to support 720p video at 30fps. That’s the full 1,280x720, unlike some other attempts at so called HD video.

The device is planned to work Office Communication Server 2007 R2  which means the Enterprises can extend a quality video experience to many more staff.  Dedicated Telepresence rooms have there place but are expensive and therefore not available to the masses. This device adds another price point in the continuum of video communication experiences. Of course, you will need adequate bandwidth to support HD.

The system requirements are quite high though, as you need at least a dual core 1.6GHz processor, but Microsoft recommends a 3GHz dual core processor and 2GB of memory.

You can get all the details over at the Microsoft Hardware site. You can expect suggested retail price of around £69.99 ($79.99 in the US).

The LifeCam Cinema is of course compatible with Windows Live Messenger, but also with Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Live Photo Gallery. It’s also compatible with Windows 7 out of the box (goes off and finds the drivers on the internet), as well as Windows Vista and Windows XP. As Kip says, it makes a nice complement to the release yesterday of Live Movie Maker.

Optimisation, Dematerialisation, Virtualisation.

Optimisation, dematerialisation, virtualisation.its ALL about making your investments work harder or smarter. Whether it be Data Centre, or supply chain, real estate, land, or logistics or other infrastructure that is not fully utilised. Lets start with Data Centre.

The Data Centre has become hot topic in reducing the costs by increasing utilisation through moving to virtualisation technology. In some cases this can go from 10-15% utilisation (industry average) to up to 80% utilization making the ROI a no brainer. The leader in this space has been VMware, however, Microsoft is fast taking share and the upcoming release of Windows Server R2 together with System Centre management tools and attractive licensing models will seriously challenge the VMware lead in this space.

Ok that was GreenIT.

Now what if we took same approach to say logistics. What is with delivery vans operating at 30% capacity? Presumably moving goods is not core business of most companies so why not share the infrastructure. Take electronics industry - no reason Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, et al can't create a system which allows them to trade empty slots in their vans. Ticks a lot of boxes in terms of costs, emissions, traffic congestion, etc.

What about real estate? Many large organisations and public sector organisations do not fully utilise their office space. Why not collaborate and make space available to local workers to provide a Third space.

In fact this idea is underpinned by the general need for a plethora of efficient B2B trading platforms some which exist today in a fragmented way.

The platform is a classic cloud service application where individuals or companies can participate through multiple user devices.

Love to hear more ideas and whether some enterprising company has created a general purpose platform. Perhaps it is the next market for eBay to apply itself to?

Shoothill celebrate Apollo mission with Deep Zoom

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo missions to the moon and to celebrate this amazing achievement Shoothill have created a Deep Zoom experience - "Deep Moon - 10GB of Apollo imagery".

[You will need Microsoft Silverlight installed on your PC (this will automatically ask you to download) and do have your speakers on.]

For the past 18 months or so,  Shoothill has been trying to push the boundaries of Microsoft Deep Zoom in order to show to the world what Deep Zoom (and Shoothill) is capable of.  However, DZ is still in beta right now and there are some limitations particularly in terms of total size of image and the sheer volume of information that needs to be processed and this creates both time problems and ultimately restricts what we are able to do.  What this means in practical terms is that all Deep Zooms so far produced around the world have a limit of around 10,000 x 10,000 pixels.

Now, Shoothill has developed some code and a process to help improve this and in order to demonstrated these new capabilities we have created what they believe is the ultimate Deep Zoom...............DEEP MOON......................

1.       First the zoom loads and you will see a clear image:-

2.       Second, the mosaic slowly reveals itself 'through' the master image:-

3.       When  you zoom into the mosaic you will see that it is truly vast 

4.       And the quality of the cell images cannot be bettered......and there are 60,000 of them!

This image is truly gargantuan in size and Shoothill believe that this level of quality (of both the master image and the clarity of the individual cells) represents the current limit of Deep Zoom. 

If you interested in this image contact Rod Plummer at

TechNet Conference goes Virtual

Here is a trend that will increase. Virtual conferences. Not only can you attend live over the internet and interact with the presenters but the presentations are available post event to catch up what you missed.

Already companies are making greater use of audio and video conferencing technology and seeing the benefits in terms of reduction in travel costs and increase productivity (see post on Flexible Working).

HP Launches Scale-Out Datacenter Solutions

HP are taking on IBM in offering solutions for Datacenter Efficiency at scale….

HP unveiled the HP Extreme Scale-Out (ExSO) portfolio this week, which is a set of new solutions targeting large-scale datacenter customers. The mega-datacenter market encompasses sites that are specifically designed for massive scale operations, including grid computing, large scale-out compute, Cloud, Web 2.0, and HPC. Common across all these sites is the laser focus on reducing operational expenses in addition to the capital expenditures of IT systems; the reason being in these companies the datacenter is the factory floor where IT operational costs have a clear and direct impact on business profits.

The second part of the announcement is the new HP Data Center Environment Edge solution designed to optimized datacenter energy efficiency. The solution utilizes a network of wireless sensors to map the customer’s environment, providing visibility into the facilities aspects of their IT operations. In real time, customers are able to monitor power consumption, temperature, humidity, and air pressure throughout the datacenter. As with other environmental monitoring tools, customers are able to track performance over a time to observe trends and develop a baseline from which they can identify areas for improvement.

Will the Cloud help with global GHG emissions?

I certainly see Cloud Computing as a key enabler to reducing total carbon emissions as companies move from on premise to cloud based computing ostensibly to reduce cost. This of course relies on the provider being more efficient overall and preferably carbon neutral. Companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google have the scale to make a huge impact and are already acting to do so. At the moment though there is no mechanism to track the overall impact as this type of CO2 footprint is “traded”.

Microsoft Data Centers for example are able to track energy and carbon consumption to the application level so conceivably we could see Service Providers offer another avenue for companies to reduce their emissions. It will be interesting to see whether datacenters will be able to participate in CDM and Carbon Trading by generating tradable certificates from the CO2 they remove from the grid. Not sure how additionality is worked into the equation though.

It would be interesting to see some projections of the overall impact of shifting percentage of on-premise compute to the cloud. Let me know if any analysts are on the case?

For more information see other cloud or datacenter postings on my blog and specifically Microsoft play in the Cloud space through Microsoft Software+Services initiative such as Microsoft Online Services and the Microsoft Azure Services platform.

see my posting on Microsoft Datacenter strategy

Business Leaders Outline Six Steps for Ambitious Global Climate Treaty

Agreement on a science-based greenhouse gas stabilization path with 2020 and 2050 emissions reduction targets that will achieve it;
1. Effective measurement, reporting and verification of emissions performance by business;
2. Incentives for a dramatic increase in financing low emissions technologies;
3. Deployment of existing low-emissions technologies and the development of new ones;
4. Funds to make communities more resilient and able to adapt to the effects of climate change, and
5. Means to finance forest protection.

See Copenhagen Climate Council Call for more detail

Microsoft signs EU Code of Conduct for data centers and targets PUE of less than 1.2

Reposted from DataCenter Dynamics article

Microsoft has signed up as a participant and an endorser of the EU code of conduct for data center efficiency.
To date the company is one of the largest data center operators to sign as a participant in the Code. The Code of Conduct offers two levels of engagement, participants are generally data center operators who must commit to monitoring and reporting of data center energy use and endorsers, generally suppliers, who promote the code.

Mark Taylor, Director of Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft said “We need to do three things: Address the issues in our own industry, work to find technological answers to the environmental problems we are all facing today and tomorrow and help individuals and organisations change their behaviour. Signing up to the Code of Conduct is just a small part of Microsoft’s commitment to environmental sustainability, but with the projected growth of cloud computing it’s important. We are also working with our network of partners, customers, environmental groups, industry groups, and leading environmental scientists and academics to drive global action on climate change and share best practice.”

Microsoft cited the efficient design of its Dublin data center as a model of reduced energy usage. "The new Microsoft Data Centre in Ireland, due to come online this summer, will consume approximately 50% less energy than a traditional data centre of its output. In the Dublin facility, Microsoft’s has applied 100% of the ‘Expected’ and the large majority of the optional best practices outlined in the code of conduct and will employ artificial cooling on just one or two days per year.
Microsoft said its data centers are currently operating with an average PUE of 1.6 and that it is targeting a PUE of below 1.2. It has already, or is planning to implement, the majority of the Code’s best practices in its data centres in Europe and across the globe, it said.

Commitments included in the The Code of Conduct encourage data centre operators to:
· Measure both the total facility and IT power consumed at each data centre and through these measurements monitor the overall efficiency of the facility. DCiE or Power Usage Effectivenss (PUE) are commonly used methods for this measurement.
· Set future energy efficiency targets for their existing and future data centre facilities, and make these efficiency goals a part of the culture of the organization. 
· Explore and implement efficiency improvements to existing data centres either through environmental, operational, or infrastructure changes, or by applying best practices or innovative approaches to refurbishments or new data centres.

Technorati Tags: Datacenter,Microsoft,Cloud

Government rules threaten renewable investments

Environmental Sustainability in Microsoft UK

Here in Microsoft UK our Environmental Management team have been spending the past year getting a handle on our environmental footprint and putting in place a program to reduce our environmental impact. Here are some of the achievements so far …………with more to come as we tackle energy consumption and travel more aggressively in the coming year.

·         Carbon Footprint Calculation: Microsoft UK Ltd commissioned the Carbon Trust to do a full audit to calculate its carbon footprint.  As a result plans are now in place to address the largest areas of contribution to our carbon emissions which are business travel, energy consumption, and commuting. Globally our footprint stands at 938,000 metric tonnes of CO2 in 2007. We have set a global carbon reduction goal of 30% based on this per unit of revenue by 2012.

·         Utilising technology to avoid travel: Microsoft actively encourages the usage of Microsoft Live Meetings internally and with customers. A pilot programme was introduced in 2009 to reduce the total number of meetings which staff either travel to themselves, or ask external parties to travel to Thames Valley Park, using our Unified Communications and Live Meetings technology is now in place.  The plan is to expand this scheme and mandate a higher usage of Live Meetings throughout the business.

·         We have now eradicated the supply of bottled water at Microsoft’s UK Reading, Chertsey and London offices. This initiative will save 2 million litres of water, 39 barrels of oil and 610,000kgs of greenhouse gases.  We will be introducing zip taps and personalised water bottles for all staff which provides filtered water instead.

·         New Microsoft buildings consume greater than 20 % less energy than existing traditional buildings. For example, From energy use and heating and lighting through to the plan of the workspace itself, Building 5 at Thames Valley Park has been designed and built to be as sustainable as possible and to support collaboration and mobility.  It is intended to be the model for all new Microsoft buildings in the UK.

·         Proximity printing - In early 2009 Microsoft UK introduced proximity printing at offices in Cardinal Place, London and TVP Reading.  A recent survey showed that up to 12% of all pages sent to printers were not retrieved, wasting 474,000 sheets of paper or the equivalent of 63 trees per year.  The introduction of this process means that staff will need to swipe their smartcard in order to retrieve a printing job and save all that paper.

<<See also Green Printing post>>

·         Green energy. Microsoft UK leads the world as the first subsidiary to use 100% green energy for its offices in Reading, Chertsey and Edinburgh, which is purchased from hydroelectric sources.

·         Meeting respected environmental standards: In 2008 Microsoft began the process of implementing the ISO 14001 as its Environmental Management System.  The roll out of the first phase is due to be completed in the first half of 2009 and we are hoping to achieve accreditation for our Facilities in the third quarter of the year.

·         Incentivising environmental commuting choices: Providing a £1,200 reduction in lease rental over the term for company cars with CO2 less than 125 g/km. All cars available on the company car pool are restricted to 220 g/km or below as well as using fuel data to identify opportunities for more fuel efficient driving. In March 2009 we held an EcoDriving workshops at TVP to help staff understand how to drive their cars in a more sustainable way

·         Partnership with Equipment Refurbishers:  With the Microsoft Authorised Reseller and Digital Pipeline programmes, the life of older retired computers is extended through low-cost licenses for Microsoft software, so that computers destined for the landfill can continue to be used. In the UK, by partnering with RDC, Microsoft is helping extend the life of over 4 million  PCs in this way.

See also worldwide site…http://www.microsoft.com/environment/commitment_policies/policies_principles.aspx

Green IT Webcast Series on TechNet!

For you ITPro’s who want to here from Microsoft on GreenIT we have a series of webcasts to access via TechNet.

The full session listing is provided below:

Webcast download will post within 2-3 business days to same URL as provided for registration.

TechNet Magazine: Special Going Green 2009 Edition

To celebrate Earth Day 2009 the TechNet team has done a special Green issue of TechNet Magazine.  This edition is  only available online which makes sense giving it’s all about Green IT.  The whole issue is dedicated to green IT and sustainable computing.  Check out the highlights below.

• Green IT:  Framework for Building a “Hyper-Green” Virtual Server System
• Green IT:  Planning Your Power Management and Virtualization Strategies
• Green IT:  Essential Tools for Planning Your Virtual Infrastructure
• Green IT:  Build a Green Datacenter