EXPERT OPINION
Patrick Smith, EMEA Field CTO,
Pure Storage
growth to tailor their storage facilities to
expected data volume as they need it.
Storage vendors have made considerable
strides in efficiency in recent years. The
arrival of affordable flash technology has
shrunk the physical space required to
accommodate each terabyte of storage.
Now flash has undergone its own evolution,
giving way to Quad Level Cell (QLC)
technology that further increases datadensity
capabilities – allowing, in some
cases, 150 times the data volume with no
increase in physical-space requirements
or carbon footprint, compared to
traditional storage like spinning disk.
Such architectures can lead to massive
reductions in power consumption.
New procurement
methodologies
Sustainable IT emanates from the
integration of such technologies into
existing stacks, thereby shielding
customers from arduous swap-out
projects. IT leaders will not only
welcome the sustainability attributes
of these solutions.
They normally endure the headache
of five-year cycles for procurement,
where amortised solutions are replaced
with new ones that fit updated fiveyear
business plans. These old
procurement approaches do not fit
regional sustainability ambitions and
they are also not aligned with current
market conditions in many industries.
Digital business models mean that
competing organisations are continually
updating their business approaches as
their analytics engines tell them what
customers want in real-time. Five-year
strategies are often outdated before they
even begin.
When formulating a green IT strategy,
enterprises need to consider three
environmental impacts when procuring
solutions: the impact of the disposal
of IT equipment; the impact of energy
consumption in operations; and the fiscal
sustainability of the investment.
The processor of an electronic device
may have a lifetime of only three years,
but many other parts, such as chassis,
power supplies or cables can live on.
Any carbon-neutral strategy should take
this into account. Sustainable IT is all
about replacing only that which is out
of date. Upgrades to hardware that are
granular and continual, lead to a healthier
environment, both ecologically and
functionally. This is, of course, a radical
paradigm shift for IT teams, but has the
added advantage of being just what the
business-development director ordered, in
terms of agility and storage requirements.
Mounting pressure –
but good news
Environmental responsibility is exactly what
the general public has been demanding
of companies and governments for
several years now. Society has evolved
over time and today it is made up of an
ever-expanding number of millennials and
Generation Z-ers.
For the most part, these digital natives are
more environmentally-focused than their
predecessors and naturally as time moves
on, they are becoming the customers
of IT vendors. They demand green IT
solutions all the more fiercely. Now, at
last, we are delivering the technologies
and strategies necessary to cater to those
demands. The pressure on IT teams to
deliver sustainable IT will only ramp up in
the future. The good news for them is that
green solutions are reducing in cost every
day; no longer requiring organisations to
make tough choices or compromises. All
that is left is for businesses to take the
leap and go green. ◊
SOLUTIONS THAT
REDUCE CARBON-
FOOTPRINT
AND RUN MORE
EFFICIENTLY
OFFER THE SAME,
OR EVEN BETTER,
FUNCTIONALITY
AS THOSE THAT
DO NOT.
42 Issue 17
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