Green IT

The study and implementation of environmentally sustainable computing

Green IT is best considered as a concept and not as a set of technologies.

The ideas estbalished in Green IT involve considering the data centre building structure and location, personnel and software not just the easy targets of hardware virtualisation and more dense storage devices etc.

The word Green inspires an ecological association and as ecology is the science of the relationships between organisms and their environments, Green IT could literally be the science of relationships between information technology and it's environment, or ecological IT.

A more formal definition could be considered as:

"The study and implementation of efficient and effective practices for environmentally sustainable computing covering the design, manufacture, use and disposable of all IT-related products and services and the resources they consume."

In summary the concept of Green IT covers significantly more than making IT equipment more energy efficient and if embraced it can deliver considerable long term benefits to an organisation and to the environment.