Martin Courtney

I am as concerned about the environment as the next bloke, demonstrably so given that I always cycle rather than drive short distances if practicable, and get angry at people who leave lights on in empty rooms or put one item of clothing in a tumble dryer.

I even voted for the Green Party candidate in the last general election. Not only did he have some excellent policies, such as keeping the local library open, building more cycle lanes and planting more trees in the park, he also happened to be my postman. I think it is always a good idea to keep on the right side of your postman.

So I am glad that the IT industry has suddenly developed a collective green conscience, even though that conscience has been nudged into activity by spiralling utility bills and the urge to reduce operational costs in datacentres and server farms.

Because, let’s face it, in the continued absence of computers adapted to run on compressed air, we need to find ways to use electricity more sparingly if power is to remain available and affordable.

But while I applaud the likes of Intel, AMD, APC and others for making genuine advances in reducing processor and rack electricity consumption, I am fed up with other equipment vendors simply ticking the green box in the hope of appealing to buyers’ environmental instincts.

Two years ago, “uses less electricity” would have barely made number 10 in the standard list of presentation bullet points. Now it regularly headlines, even though the underlying architecture has hardly changed in most cases.

Last month’s launch of HP’s take on the use of thin provisioning technology in enterprise storage environments was yet another example of a product given a last-ditch green makeover to accentuate its appeal.

Thin provisioning is designed to reduce wasted data storage capacity so that IT managers do not find themselves buying hard disks they do not use or need.

If thin provisioning is applied effectively, the capex savings on the hardware alone make the exercise worthwhile, and it is perfect sense for any IT manager to cut opex and simplify management by using only the resource they need wherever possible.

So it was unnecessary for HP to focus so heavily on the fact that thin provisioning reduces the carbon footprint by having less hard disks powered up and spinning simultaneously.

Many other vendors’ sales people are just as shameless in hijacking green issues to help sell their wares. The trick is to look deep into their eyes – if you see dollar signs rather than dolphins, think twice about their motives.