Assignment 3

(MCAP-303)

Perform an Internet search on the phrase “green computing” and then answer the following questions.
How would you define green computing? Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT. It is also defined as "the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems—such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems—efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment.” Green computing is the environmentally responsible use of computers and related resources. Such practices include the implementation of energy-efficient central processing units (CPUs), servers and peripherals as well as reduced resource consumption and proper disposal of electronic waste (e-waste). GREEN computing is the environmentally responsible use of computers and related resources. Such included the implementation of energy-efficient central processing units as well as reduced resource consumption and proper disposal of electronic waste. Modern IT systems rely upon a complicated mix of people, networks and hardware; therefore GREEN computing initiative must be systemic in nature. GREEN computing may comprise items such as management restructuring, energy use, virtualization of server resources, and return on investment. The term “GREEN computing” was coined shortly after the Energy Star program. The Energy Star program was launched by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1992. It was designed to promote and recognize energy-efficiency in monitors, climate control equipment, and other technologies. It resulted in the widespread of sleep mode in consumer electronics.

Who are some of the leaders of the green computing movement? Which corporations are leading the way? Which environmental organizations are playing an important role? Some of the major corporations leading the green computing initiative are the same major players in other computing venues: IBM, HP, and Dell. Other major corporations who are going green as a way to save money on power consumption include most Wall Street firms (since they use a tremendous amount of power in their data centers), banks like Wells Fargo, and Amazon.com. “IT management isn't the first place you would start looking for environmental activists. But in 2006, the people in charge of buying and deploying computer technology found the concept of green computing extra compelling. Analysts say the main reason is cost, energy and space savings; if it's also good for the environment, that's icing on the cake. "Even if a customer is not looking at IT purchasing from an environmental-impact perspective, things like power management and energy efficiency are now a TCO [total cost of ownership] and infrastructure issue," John Frey, manager of corporate environmental strategies at HP, told internetnews.com. The way things are going, Gartner predicts that by 2008, 50 percent of current datacenters will have insufficient power and cooling capacity to meet the demands of high-density equipment. "With the advent of high-density computer equipment such as blade servers, many datacenters have maxed out their power and cooling capacity," said Michael A. Bell, research vice president for Gartner. "It's now possible to pack racks with equipment requiring 30,000 watts per rack or more in a connected load. This compares to only 2,000 to 3,000 watts per rack a few years ago." And energy costs are rising. HP engineering research estimates that for every dollar spent on information technology, a company can expect to spend the same or more to power and cool it. As companies add more performance, they can expect those costs to continue rising. (Internetnews.com, Greener Systems an Unstoppable Trend, David Needle, December 27, 2006) One of the spin-offs of green computing is EPEAT or Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool. EPEAT products serve to increase the efficiency and life of computing products. Moreover, these products are designed to minimize energy expenditures, minimize maintenance activities throughout the life of the product and allow the re-use or recycling of some materials. This group applies and uses green computing philosophies mainly to save up on costs rather than save the environment. The GREEN Electronics Council offers the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) to assist in the purchase of “GREEN” computing systems. They evaluate computing equipment on 28 criteria that measure a product’s efficiency and sustainability attributes. Therefore it makes GREEN-computing possible for SME. In government level, many governmental agencies have continued to implement standards and regulations that encourage GREEN computing. For example, the Energy Star program was revised in 2006 to include stricter efficiency requirements for computer equipment. Not only the U.S. government improved their GREEN-computing program; the European Union’s directives on the reduction of hazardous substances and on waste electrical and electronic equipment required the substitution of heavy metals and flame retardants like PBBs and PBDEs in all electronic equipment put on the market starting on July 1, 2006. The directive also put responsibility on manufacturers for the gathering and recycling of old equipment. Beside government, there are many organizations to help enterprises, and customers to become “GREEN” in office and at home. For example, GREEN Computing Impact Organization, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to assist end-users of computing products in being environmentally responsible. They achieved their goals by educational events, cooperative programs and subsidized auditing services. For many small and medium sized enterprises (SME), they usually face the problem of limited resource they have. Strategic Leaders take into account the social and environmental impacts of new and emerging technologies. Aside from minimizing costs, this particular movement also takes into account other factors such as marketing and branding. These strategic leaders recognize the need to overhaul some existing policies or structural makeup of the organization. This can be seen in recent efforts to make IT personnel directly responsible for managing, minimizing and ensuring efficient energy expenditures.

What are the latest trends in green computing? What kind of impact are they having? A few trends in green computing include purchasing green desktops—those built to reduce power needs; more efficient server computers; increase the use of virtualization as a way to reduce the number of servers needed in data centers. 2007 saw the beginning of the green computing movement so it’s a bit early to determine the overall impact all the initiatives are having. Much of the impetus behind the ‘green computing’ movement is not necessarily to save the environment, although it will certainly help reduce the impact on the environment. Rather, many companies are seeking ways to reduce power costs; going green is a way to do that.

What can individuals do to contribute to the green computing movement? Is the movement worthwhile? Firstly, as educated people, individuals can learn more about their habits. So, as personal experience we look at the mirror reflection to ourselves. From our habits we can learn that in today’s society we still can’t safe our money. This the simply way, to do a little basic knowledge about saving their money than they can do a biggest part to saving our energy. This not only for green computer, in the future we hope government and individuals can cooperative to do green environmental; which not only save our energy but also reduce the global warming. In brief, individuals can do more contribute to the green computing by look to the self-reflection about their habits and also start to minimize the energy to get the maximize potential from computer. Individuals can also contribute to the green computing movement by purchasing computers that have Energy Star ratings; turning off equipment they aren’t using, recycling computer equipment, and supporting companies that are going green.

Explore the Salesforce.com Web site. Go to the App Exchange portion of the site, and examine the applications available for each of the categories listed. Then answer the following questions:

What are the most popular applications on App Exchange? What kinds of processes do they support? When accessing the App Exchange, there is a tab that makes it easy to find the most popular applications, new applications, top picks and native applications. This enables users to quickly find the most popular applications. The first application that appears for the most popular applications is Outlook Integration for Salesforce (Outlook 2010 & Windows 7 Supported). This application can assist companies in creating contacts or leads from e-mails along with directly viewing the contact information in Outlook without navigating away from Salesforce. The application cost $29.95 for a one-time license and offers a discount for non-profit organizations. The application also offers a demonstration video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCNLqpa4Y7s. The next application is Vertical Response for App Exchange, which creates a professional e-mail campaign with one of the 500 pre-designed templates, which can be edited. It is also inexpensive; the pricing depends on whether it is an e-mail campaign or a postcard campaign. It too provides a demonstration video, http://www.verticalresponse.com/tutorials/salesforce/?target=/tutorials/videos/salesforce/overview/. The next application is Conga Composer. This application produces several documents by merging information with Excel, Word, or even PDF forms. It can create contracts, quotes, and create plans for a business. It also provides a demonstration video, https://www.appextremes.com/Conga/Demos/2009.11/Composer.html. You can also view screenshots of this application. This application is free for the first 30 days, and then it becomes $12 per user per month with an annual subscription and a 5-user minimum.

Could a company run its entire business using Salesforce.com and App Exchange? Explain your answer. I do not believe a company could run its entire business using Salesforce.com and App Exchange. This system and these applications mainly deal with sales, marketing, accounting, finances, and can deal with manufacturing and production. A company still has another functional areas to deal with, human resources. A company needs to have a good, strong team behind their company. A company cannot use these applications or Salesforce to determine who should work for them.

What kinds of companies are most likely to use App Exchange? What does this tell you about how Salesforce.com is being used? App Exchange lists the industries that they specialize in. Businesses dealing with these industries are most likely to use App Exchange. These industries are as followed; communications, education, financial services, general business-no focus, health care, high tech, manufacturing, media, nonprofit, pharmaceutical, professional services, public sector, real estate, and retail. This shows that App Exchange is growing and can help several types of companies. If App Exchange continues to grow and is easy to modify, every business could benefit from using its applications one day.

What management, organization, and technology issues must be addressed if you or your business was considering systems and computers with multitouch interfaces? Management: Training users to adapt to the new technology will take time and effort, people don’t like to change their habits even if the technology is easier to use. Users will experience some frustration switching back and forth between the old technology of using a mouse and keyboard and the new multitouch technology. Organization: Purchasing new hardware and software that uses multitouch technology will be expensive and time‐consuming. Writing new user policies for multitouch technology will take time. Making the multitouch technology cost beneficial to the organization is a serious consideration Technology: Writing new applications to employ multitouch and rewriting old applications will take time and effort. Some applications will be easier than others to adapt.

References
1 - http://www.hpcprojects.com/features/feature.php?feature_id=219 Date:10.01.2010
2 - Report of the Green Computing Task Group Green Computing and the Environment
3 - http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=computers.pr_crit_computers