Latest Technologies and Practices for Ict Sustainability: Green Computing

In terms of growing awareness about environmental impact of computing, green technology is gaining Increasing importance. With rising energy consumption, global warming and e-waste, the idea of green Computing is widely taken into serious consideration by both the government agencies and private Companies, as their contribution in good practices for sustainable development. Green computing refers to the practice of environmentally responsible and efficient use of computing resources while maintaining economic viability and improving its performance in eco-friendly way. This paper aims to present main approaches and assumptions of green IT by showing the latest solutions and energy efficient practices in computing industry. This paper has made a systematic study on several strategies and developments in context to the ICT sustainability as a future asset of growth for modern Society.

The article focuses on the practices like use, disposal, design and manufacturing as well as on technology based-solutions like electronic products and services e. g. green cloud. The outlook for Greener ICT should include using the Internet as a powerful agenda for promotion and education for environmentally aware behavior and as a useful tool for creating eco-friendly technology. Keywords: Green computing, power management, sustainability, eco-friendly technology, green cloudI. IntroductionGreen computing is the term referring to efficient use of resources in computing and IT/IS infrastructure. Efficiency of green computing emphases on minimalizing hazardous environmental impact in conjunction with achieving economic viability and improved system performance. The field of “green technology” covers a board spectrum of subjects – from alternative energy-generation and electricity consumption techniques and use of eco-friendly, recyclable materials to implementing Sustainable digital services. Technical issues of green technology includes: green infrastructure(energy-efficient buildings, intelligent cooling systems, renewable power sources), green hardware(multicore computing systems, energy efficient server design and solid-state storage and green software and applications - parallelizing computational science algorithms to run on modern energy efficient multi-core clusters, intelligent load distribution and CPU switch-off. Nowadays in order to achieve social awareness and promotion of green technology solutions, main four complementary approaches are employed:• Green Use: Reducing the power consumption of computers, information systems and their peripheral subsystems in environmentally friendly manner.

• Green Disposal: Refurbishing and reusing existing old computers and other electronic associated devices. Recycling unwanted used computers and other electronic-waste by IT vendors using their “take back” policy in order to take responsibility for the full lifecycle of products they produce.

• Green Design: In broader aspect connecting companies, government agencies and environmental organizations in order to develop inventive management, business and regulatory processes that can improve environmental quality while enhancing economic development.

In narrow and practical aspect designing power efficient and eco-friendly computers and its subsystems like servers and cooling equipment.

• Green Manufacturing: Process of production of computers and associated devices include methods of manufacturing and biodegradable components for minimal or no impact on environment. This approach allows providing economic benefits like long-term cost savings, and business process efficiency improvements. II. Green ManufacturingIn order to achieve goals set by the idea of ICT sustainability whole process of creating ICT infrastructure should be taken into account. Minimal impact on the environment should be one of the key assumptions for IT manufacturers during the process of design and production of all ICT components. Major IT companies are already applying green standards to their own operations in order to: gain new revenue opportunities and promote social and environmental responsibility influencing customers and market competition.

Main areas in green manufacturing of computers are:

• Eco-friendly design: the design of computing resources that meet the stringent restriction of e. g. Energy Star enabling further utilization with determined power supply and power management requirements (including special modes and allowances). “The Energy Star devices can be programmed to power-down to a low electric state when they are not in use, helping to save energy and run cooler which helps them last even longer”.

• Use of bio-products: biodegradable and renewable materials often require less energy to produce in comparison to traditional toxic materials. Manufacturer’s use many different types of plastic in computers, which makes is very changeling do recycle. What is more computers contain hazardous contaminants for environment like: cadmium, lead, mercury or chromium. Use of harmful power-demanding materials can be replaced by efficient and recyclable elements e. g. displays made of OLED’s (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) - in manufacturing mercury is not used, making them more environmentally friendly. III. Green UseThe great importance is to understand the full life cycle of computing resources, while applying the idea of green computing. Following are the areas and practices that users can implement for maximizing usefulness and minimalizing negative consequences for environment:

• PC power management techniques: set of actions and mechanisms for controlling the power use of personal computer hardware mainly turning off the power or switching the system to the low-power state when inactive. In computing this kind of power management is built around the specification called The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), an open industrial standard that allows direct control, management savings energy by the operating system - automatic switch off your monitor, go to stand-by mode, etc. In addition, the system can go into hibernation, at the time the CPU and RAM are disabled. Some software solutions allow the definition of voltage e. g. on CPU, which allows for the reduction of heat production and energy consumption. Some mobile processors can adjust the voltage upto the required capacity in a given moment. This technology is called Speed Stepon Intel, Power Now!

• Virtualization: In the traditional IT infrastructure servers are dedicated to specific computing functions like storage, communication, database and so on. Virtualization eliminates the need for a dedicated server to run applications – it enables at the same time to run multiple operating systems on the same hardware platform and the system at maximum possible performance. It is based on a launching the operating system in virtual machine, abandoning the universality of emulation many computer architectures. Limitation only to the hardware platform used to perform a certain number of guest operating system processes (emulated system) directly on the hardware of computer. Only when such operations are not directly performed, virtualizer emulates them. This means that a virtualizer starts the operating system so that it can coexist with the primary system and achieve maximum compatibility and performance. The dedicated servers are only used when there are active connections, they can be used for other purposes during their idle or inactive time or use. Virtualization contributes in green technology on the one hand by reducing: number of servers, power and disposal requirements of desktops and limiting costly business travels of staff, customers and suppliers as well as replacing paper systems with on-line communication platforms. IV. Green DisposalThe approach of green technology disposal include refurbishing and reusing old existing computing equipment and proper recycling of obsolete, unwanted or broken computers and its subsystems. Due to strength of negative effects on environment arising from improper approach to disposal, this aspect of green computing is among one of the most important:

• Reuse: Even old computer should continue to be used as long as it meets the requirements of user. Computer systems which basic functions are obsolete and fail to meet the holder’s need can be given to someone who wants to use it or need it for its functional components. Many charities and non-profit organizations are willing to receive old equipment through donation to re-purpose or utilize its particular function. Prolonged use of a computer system significantly contributes to the reduction of negative environmental effects.

• Refurbish: By reconditioning and replacing IT hardware parts user can prolong its utilization. Old equipment can be restored in order to maintain its functions; it also can be up graded for obtaining new serviceableness. Reasons of such actions can be motivated by lower cost of refurbished equipment – nowadays more enterprisers are willing to buy restored hardware, and such market is growing. At this point it is important to understand the difference between “refurbished” and “used” product. Refurbishing gives the guarantee that the product was tested and verified to function properly while “used” products may or not may be defective. Hardware vendors often resell equipment that was returned under warranty after repairing the defects and checking proper function. Refurbished hardware provides a cost-effective alternative. Another incentive may be maintaining corporate standards by ensuring that all employees use the same equipment. Such action significantly reduces e-waste.

• Recycle: Recycling is one of the most complex methods of environmental protection. Its aim is to reduce the consumption of natural resources and reduce waste. The principle of recycling is to maximize re-use of materials, taking into account minimizing the expenditures for their processing. This principle allows protecting both: the raw materials necessary for manufacturing as well as those required in the further processing. Recycling takes place in two areas: the production of products and the subsequent wastes formation of these goods. Recycling assumptions involve forcing appropriate attitudes among goods manufacturers, favouring the production with the most recoverable materials and creating the appropriate behavior of the recipients of these goods. E-waste from computer and associated equipment contains different substances, many of which are hazardous, such as mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic and chromium. The health effects of these toxins on humans include birth defects, brain, heart, liver, kidney, skeletal, reproductive and nervous system damage. If computers are thrown out on the landfills and other improper locations, toxic chemicals can be released into the environment (food chain and water). Burning e-waste is another threat – causing release of a toxic gas into the air that we breathe. Although e–waste mainly contains harmful materials, some valuable metals like gold and copper can be found and become source for secondary raw materials. Such actions can be turned into profitable business. To sum up: “manufacturing and purchasing of energy efficient IT infrastructure, the efficient operation and utilization of computing devices as well as its proper disposal i. e. green manufacturing, use and disposal are the efforts that lead to economic and ecological benefits”.

V. latest developments Green Cloud ComputingThe Gartner report from May 2009 defines cloud concept as “a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT capabilities are provided as a service to multiple customers using Internet technologies”. The understood in three dimensions: economic, environmental and social. Clouds consolidate environment, saving power, cooling, space and money. Cost savings and flexibility of operations are among the most frequently mentioned benefits associated with a decision to adopt the cloud computing solution. Fixed costs related to the investment in infrastructure (which in the traditional business model generally increases with time and the need to update the software) are reduced, as well as energy costs feeding the infrastructure. Traditional costs related with the licenses, number of users, equipment, operation, repairs and applications are replaced for payment for functionality that is actually used by the company or other organization that also obtain access to the latest technology. This solution allows adjusting supply to demand, eliminating incurring unnecessary costs associated with the overestimation or underestimation of customer needs. At the same time, it affects the reduction of occurrence of lost sales opportunities risk and cost of incorrect demand forecasting and company’s supply planning. Some aspects of cloud’s ICT infrastructure allow identifying the model as the one providing green can be achieved by migrating the IT resources to the cloud. These aspects may include:

• Dynamic provisioning and multi tenancy: lower energy consumption and associated carbon emissions than the traditional approach of over-provisioning. Automatic processing of computing environment supports user needs, operating under the cloud may acquire or release the resources (instances) where it is appropriate (according to the demand). Dynamic resource allocation is done automatically, thus datacenters maintain active servers according to current demand. With virtualization technology, which allows to connect disparate resources in one great set of resources it is possible to release them more selectively to all customers at the same time increasing the level of their use. Without Virtualization cloud computing would never arise. The entire pool is shared by many customers of a one supplier, in the way of dynamic allocation and releasing precisely defined portion of virtual resources. Level of use of the pool is proportional to changes in demand for computing resources.

• Optimal server utilization: traditionally, many servers remain idle of 85-95% of the time using nearly as much power as they do when they are active. Virtualization technology enables hosting of multiple applications through one server. The number of active servers is reduced and the power consumption is lower.

• Energy-efficient client devices: the public cloud model reduces the number of energy consuming clients through small energy-efficient devices (e. g. thin clients). Carbon Aware Green Cloud Architecture:Green cloud architecture is one of the latest developments of green computing idea. The aim of this Unified solution is to deliver both users and providers, high-level architecture for supporting energy efficient service allocation which is based on cloud technology. Cloud providers, being profit oriented are looking for solutions which can lower their electricity bills without losing their market share. The goal of satisfying the demand for high-level computing services on the users’ side and saving energy on the providers side can now be achieved by implementing the green cloud infrastructure. Fig 1 shows the architecture for supporting energy-efficient service allocation in green cloud computing infrastructure. The cloud services (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) are registered in the form of public offering in Green Offer Directory. The Green Broker has the full access to all services which are available and registered in public directory. Green Offer directory is incentive for the providers who, list their services with discounted prices and green hours. A typical cloud broker lease cloud services and schedule applications Green broker’s responsibility is to select these offerings in terms of requirements of end user.