Whether you're browsing Facebook on your mobile, sending a Tweet, Skyping someone on the other side of the world or using your supermarket loyalty card, IT is behind it all. IT is everywhere, but as our dependency on it grows, as does the opportunity for inefficiency.
Over the past five years $8 trillion has been spent on IT globally, which is more than half the National debt of the United States and about four times the UK GDP. If you look back at that figure, it's like giving everyone in North America a car, or funding 888 Olympiads or 5,333 Space Shuttle launches or giving a MacBook Air to every one of the seven billion people in the world.
The problem with IT is that 80% of IT cost is spent on simply keeping the lights on, which leaves just 20% on innovation, on making a positive difference. And yet, opportunities exist to increase IT efficiency across every domain (software, hardware, cloud, virtualization, energy use, systems management and the rise of consumerized IT, or the proliferation of devices such as smartphones, tablets and netbooks that businessmen and the man on the street alike seem to be surgically connected to at all times.
It's the easy things that often get overlooked. Take office equipment for example. With PCs and servers accounting for 50% of office energy consumption, there's a clear opportunity to cut IT costs and reduce C02 here. Simple steps can result in big savings, so here are some top tips to increase IT efficiency and make some cost and carbon savings along the way:
Power down PCs when they're not being used
At the end of every day, employees make a decision to turn off their PCs... or not. Only half of people in the UK and US always remember to turn off their work computer, wasting thousands of pounds and vast amounts of energy. If all of the world's one billion PCs were powered down for just one night, it would save enough energy to light up New York City's Empire State Building - inside and out - for more than 30 years. PC power management can reduce PC power costs by up to 40% and save 586 pounds of CO2 per user per year (the carbon emissions equivalent of consuming 30 gallons of gasoline).
Make sure the servers in your data centre is using energy for a reason
Do you wonder where the picture comes from when you're streaming your favourite programme online? Or where your Facebook photos are saved? All that information will be in a physical or virtual (cloud) data center somewhere in the world (and there are about 44 million of those at the last count). Yet one sixth (15% or 4.7 million) of those servers are not doing any useful work. As much as 11.8 million tons of CO2 (the same amount produced by 2.1 million cars) is wasted each year by such servers. Finding them and switching them off would save $3.8 billion in energy costs. With energy costs rising and aggressive carbon reduction targets in place, there's never been a better time to make sure that IT is as carbon and cost efficient as possible.
Save money and time with automation
Have you ever put in a request to your IT department for a new software app only to discover that you're still waiting weeks later? You're not alone. Up to 75% of us wait more than a week to get the apps we need. Imagine how much easier it would be to have an app store at work, similar to iTunes, but for software. At least 12% of IT help desk tickets are requests for new software - a process that would be quicker and easier if users could find and install software themselves. User self service could save organisations in the UK and US over $8.6bn a year in IT help desk costs, and save the poor IT guy a lot of time too!
Only pay for the software you need
Do you ever notice an icon on your desktop and think, what's that? How many programmes are installed on your computer that you never use? Software licenses are expensive, and unused software is a significant drain on IT budgets - on average costing organisations a whopping £432 per PC. By investigating what is being used and what isn't, big savings can be made.
You don't have to be the CEO of a software company to know that IT is all around us. And the more we depend on IT, the more money and energy it takes to maintain. We all have a responsibility to make sure that the technology we use daily doesn't use more energy than it needs to, so by following some of the simple steps above it is possible to embrace a more efficient form of IT.
Reducing IT inefficiency even by just 2% creates a $36 billion dollar industry per year - a cause that is certainly worth fighting the good fight for!