Monday, June 30, 2008
Electricity Addiction, Green IT and Declarative Living
Electrity is more addictive than crack cocaine...
The notion of Green IT is starting to resonate in the halls of corporate America, yet the story isn't fully baked. Wouldn't it be interesting if industry analysts such as Tom Raftery and my peers who have been assigned to make IT greener didn't just talk about power consumption in the data center but instead made it more personal.
What do you think would happen if they all attempted to ween themselves away from electricity for just one day? No computer, no car, no TV, no crackberries, no telephone and so on.
Have you ever noticed that the moment an enterprise wants to start an outsourcing initiative, they hire natives from the country of destination (I wonder why this popular practice doesn't violate EEOC). For example, if you outsource to India, you can usually find someone from India as part of the decision making team. Shouldn't the same thing occur for Green IT?
Imagine taking folks from Pennsylvania or other parts of middle America who are Amish and asking them to consult on power consumption in corporate America. If you can't find enough folks who are Amish then consider those who are pious observant Jews. Devout Judaism says that people don't manipulate electricity for about 24 hours each week (sunset Friday to night Saturday) known as Sabbath. It becomes forbidden to drive, use public transportation, ring a doorbell, answer a phone, use a microwave oven and most certainly no computers.
I suspect that suggesting someone be on the outsourcing team from India is politically acceptable yet suggesting that we choose someone from a particular religious background to be on the green IT team is politically incorrect yet they follow the same footsteps. I guess enterprises have no choice but to reinvent the wheel and to not harness the knowledge of others built over the last couple thousand years...
| | View blog reactionsThe notion of Green IT is starting to resonate in the halls of corporate America, yet the story isn't fully baked. Wouldn't it be interesting if industry analysts such as Tom Raftery and my peers who have been assigned to make IT greener didn't just talk about power consumption in the data center but instead made it more personal.
What do you think would happen if they all attempted to ween themselves away from electricity for just one day? No computer, no car, no TV, no crackberries, no telephone and so on.
Have you ever noticed that the moment an enterprise wants to start an outsourcing initiative, they hire natives from the country of destination (I wonder why this popular practice doesn't violate EEOC). For example, if you outsource to India, you can usually find someone from India as part of the decision making team. Shouldn't the same thing occur for Green IT?
Imagine taking folks from Pennsylvania or other parts of middle America who are Amish and asking them to consult on power consumption in corporate America. If you can't find enough folks who are Amish then consider those who are pious observant Jews. Devout Judaism says that people don't manipulate electricity for about 24 hours each week (sunset Friday to night Saturday) known as Sabbath. It becomes forbidden to drive, use public transportation, ring a doorbell, answer a phone, use a microwave oven and most certainly no computers.
I suspect that suggesting someone be on the outsourcing team from India is politically acceptable yet suggesting that we choose someone from a particular religious background to be on the green IT team is politically incorrect yet they follow the same footsteps. I guess enterprises have no choice but to reinvent the wheel and to not harness the knowledge of others built over the last couple thousand years...
