Working Your Way to a Greener SMB

By Pam Baker
E-Commerce Times, September 28th, 2009

Excerpt from article:

Going green isn't just for deep-pocketed mega-corporations. Small businesses can also cut their carbon footprints without spending much. In fact, some steps toward conservation can end up saving money on the short term. Smart power management, the use of less paper, and a look into SaaS can all be low-cost or no-cost paths to a greener SMB...

In fact, just about everything in the way of IT these days can be hosted or delegated to the cloud.

"Most offices were not built to function as a data center, and in fact, in most offices, servers and PBXs are pushed into small closets not designed for heat dissipation," Scott Kinka, senior vice president of network services for Evolve IP, told E-Commerce Times. "Cooling these rooms requires more cooling than you generally need per square foot. Hosted solutions eliminate this burden."

Moving services like PBXs and servers off-site reduces the power and cooling requirements at your office significantly, Kinka said. Hosted service providers are built for the multi-tenant environment -- services are "virtualized" onto large servers and equipment that service multiple customers, reducing power consumption and cooling need per end user.

"By reducing on-site power and cooling use, businesses also reduce their carbon footprint," he explained. "Besides, the next server or PBX that you buy will eventually end up in a landfill. Made up of primarily metal and plastic, it will never degrade. A hosted service prevents you from having to buy or upgrade that equipment in the first place."

Read the full article at E-Commerce Times: Working Your Way to a Greener SMB