Legacy Blog from Sun Microsystems: https://blogs.oracle.com/dmular_itil/https://blogs.oracle.com/dmular_itil/
From the perspective of approach, in a mature service management organization, "Green" business becomes merely a "Conscious, Critical Business Objective". Being a "mature" business process however is not a requirement for lowering our carbon footprint, reducing our power consumption, and making the best use of our most valuable resources. It starts with the notion that we can do business better, and more efficiently than we are now.. And the starting requirement is a decision to begin today, with the intention and actions in harmony.
Sometimes when we discuss the feasibility of IT Approaches, we get so lost in the language, that we lose the requirements an initiative must deliver. If ITIL is about synthesizing the service requirements of Business Priorities, then the adding of a "Green IT Business Plan" could feed right into an existing or emerging IT Best Practice Roadmap.
Whether you use the best of practices (CobIT, ITIL, Sigma ITIL, CMMI, or PRINCE) as the approach, the desired output of an adequate "Green Business" initiative should have some measurable notes along the way to the "BEFORE" Green and "AFTER" Green. Because "green" has but an emerging standard for business practice, it becomes very easy to "slap a recycled logo on something" and market it green, however "true" green business would have a measurable affect on the business ability to make the best and most efficient use of IT Resources- material, people, financial, and most importantly environmental impact.
While we understand the appeal and simplicity with "calling something green", it really is much easier to "call" something green business, than it is to "prove" the green business, without mature IT Service Management, Capacity Management, Finance Management, Change/Release Management, and Configuration Management.
ITIL Version 3 will help to identify the Service Management best practices, and a best practice that is regularly reviewing performance indicators will find measurable results, however IT Governance Disciplines are linked to the CIO success. The major change of "eco-business" is one of culture, collaboration, and continuous process improvement. Where the decision to "fund" growth of Application, Infrastructure, and Network are tied to things like "power costs", "support costs", and "business investment management", the discipline and value of eco business, simply is not possible with out well aligned service management. There can be a definitive difference in practice for a good IT practice, based upon aligning the service management outputs.
RECOGNIZING GREEN IT BUSINESS:
1. Measurable results in reducing "carbon footprint" (less power, better utilization, virtualization and optimization)
2. Managed Product AND Service Life Cycle with a focus on Corporate Governance, Open Practices and Supply Chain perspective on business requirements, environmental responsibility, and resource management. The result of which measurably reduces environmental impact- recycle, reuse, repurpose/reduce.
3. Must be able to identify, measure and improve practice. "History" or "Legacy" "box for a business application" is traded for scalability and sustainability.
4. Investments in Real Estate, Human Resources for Support, Location, Commute time or alternative are given a more strategic form of collaboration to a better end. "Bigger" or "Smaller" does not mean "Better", so much as "efficient". As we make investments in improving the business, our capacity to deliver service improves, because we are focused on primary objectives, with a reduced level of disruption. There will still be conflict, of course, and yet decisions are made based upon the impact to the ability to deliver services with distinctive flair for efficiency.
1. Measurable results in reducing "carbon footprint" (less power, better utilization, virtualization and optimization)
2. Managed Product AND Service Life Cycle with a focus on Corporate Governance, Open Practices and Supply Chain perspective on business requirements, environmental responsibility, and resource management. The result of which measurably reduces environmental impact- recycle, reuse, repurpose/reduce.
3. Must be able to identify, measure and improve practice. "History" or "Legacy" "box for a business application" is traded for scalability and sustainability.
4. Investments in Real Estate, Human Resources for Support, Location, Commute time or alternative are given a more strategic form of collaboration to a better end. "Bigger" or "Smaller" does not mean "Better", so much as "efficient". As we make investments in improving the business, our capacity to deliver service improves, because we are focused on primary objectives, with a reduced level of disruption. There will still be conflict, of course, and yet decisions are made based upon the impact to the ability to deliver services with distinctive flair for efficiency.
Size of company does not really factor into the equation of "who" could make a difference. Fact is simply that every decision to make a difference contributes to the greater good. Creating a community of wisdom, open practices, and innovation however does factor well!
Social Media is no longer a back channel, and although twitter is far from just "what are you doing now", it also has not emerged into it's peak potential for sharing, 'who is leading best practices, and what are alternative strategies and intentions for doing business, even better'.
CRITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF GREEN IT INITIATIVE:
* Define, Assess, then Optimize existing IT Assets.
* Process and Metrics implies use of a management review of Forecast, Dashboard, Execution, Result.
* Position IT Service Management, Change/Release Management, Capacity and Financial Management to enable measurable, and improving Green Business Practice Results.
* Continuously look for opportunities to improve both base level infrastructure, and governing architecture to identify inefficiency. Note that this is best done with a Configuration Management approach so as not to over provision lower impact services.
* Define, Assess, then Optimize existing IT Assets.
* Process and Metrics implies use of a management review of Forecast, Dashboard, Execution, Result.
* Position IT Service Management, Change/Release Management, Capacity and Financial Management to enable measurable, and improving Green Business Practice Results.
* Continuously look for opportunities to improve both base level infrastructure, and governing architecture to identify inefficiency. Note that this is best done with a Configuration Management approach so as not to over provision lower impact services.
WHAT IT IS NOT:
1. Merely a cost saving exercise, however costs are an important reason to consider environmental impacts, given the skyrocketing costs of "energy" being up 27.1% since 2005. It stands to reason, better management, less carbon emissions, better business practice for global and business conservation.
2. It is not a "Data Center",'Real Estate', or 'Human Resources' initiative, it is a way of doing business that organically manages consumption, business investments/divestments, and repurposing.
3. Eliminating critical services, data, or systems that serve a vital business need. It is about identifying a"strategy for (eco-preneurial) abundance", what is the maximum business practice, with minimum resource consumption.
4. Buying the next biggest server with all the latest bells and whistles, so much as buying the right systems to source your business activities, while dealing with existing assets. When you must invest, look into Trade In and "Expertise"-- sometimes it is much more affordable to buy, than build. Do you really need to become experts in capacity, optimization, change management, and infrastructure management (viruses, patching, storage, backup, disaster recovery, proactive services) when you run your business, or could you get better savings, by virtualizing some levels of activity.
1. Merely a cost saving exercise, however costs are an important reason to consider environmental impacts, given the skyrocketing costs of "energy" being up 27.1% since 2005. It stands to reason, better management, less carbon emissions, better business practice for global and business conservation.
2. It is not a "Data Center",'Real Estate', or 'Human Resources' initiative, it is a way of doing business that organically manages consumption, business investments/divestments, and repurposing.
3. Eliminating critical services, data, or systems that serve a vital business need. It is about identifying a
4. Buying the next biggest server with all the latest bells and whistles, so much as buying the right systems to source your business activities, while dealing with existing assets. When you must invest, look into Trade In and "Expertise"-- sometimes it is much more affordable to buy, than build. Do you really need to become experts in capacity, optimization, change management, and infrastructure management (viruses, patching, storage, backup, disaster recovery, proactive services) when you run your business, or could you get better savings, by virtualizing some levels of activity.
RESOURCES:
"Creating the Green IT Action Plan" Christopher Mines, Forrester 10/19/07
Green Means Business Sun Microsystems 11/10/06
The Road to Virtualization 11/14/07
Eco Live with Sun and Robert F. Kennedy
Green Means Business Sun Microsystems 11/10/06
The Road to Virtualization 11/14/07
Eco Live with Sun and Robert F. Kennedy
WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS OF WHAT IS REQUIRED FOR ITIL SUCCESS? I asked this question today on LinkedIn as well.
How do you define a successful ITIL Eco-Green/Business Intiatives?
Am interested in your comments and thoughts on this subject of how IT approaches and defines a standard for Eco-Business IT Practices!
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