The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of any technology solution includes many things, from the cost of equipment and software to annual maintenance fees, carrier or service provider fees, and support from external or internal staff. Most business owners have a tendency to overlook the cost of the power and environmentals (like cooling) needed to support on-site equipment.

Powering On-Site Equipment

Each on-site server in your business can generate 500 watts of power. Your phone system requires power for one server, the PBX Shelf / Cabinet, and power per user. With as little as 25 users, this can calculate to roughly 700 watts of power. Network equipment (routers, CSU/DSU, switches) can generate 30-500 watts of power each. Over the next five years, most enterprise data centers will spend as much on energy (power and cooling) as they do on hardware infrastructure.

Keeping It Cool

Cooling the server room or telcom closet requires power and increases CO2 emissions. Most offices were not built to function as a data center. In fact, in most offices, servers and PBXs are pushed into small closets not designed for heat dissipation. Cooling these rooms requires more cooling than generally required per square foot. According to a recent Gartner report, 70 percent of CIOs are reporting that power and/or cooling issues are now their single largest problem in data centers.

Moving It to the Cloud

Moving services like PBXs and servers off site reduces the power and cooling requirements at your office significantly. You may be thinking, “aren’t I just moving all of that power and cooling to the service provider?” Of course you are. However, cloud-based services from Evolve IP are designed for multi-tenancy. Services are “virtualized” onto large servers and equipment that service multiple customers, reducing power consumption and cooling need per end user. Some experts estimate that power consumption per employee can be reduced by upwards of 65-70 percent.

Technology is Not Bio-Degradable

It sounds like an obvious conclusion, but don’t underestimate what old technology means to the environment. 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. Worse yet, computer equipment also contains other hazardous materials, including mercury, cadmium (a known carcinogen), and hexavalent chromium (shown to cause high blood pressure, iron-poor blood, liver disease, and nerve and brain damage in animals). Disposing of the equipment poses a risk to groundwater and soil quality and may ultimately end up in your food or drinking water. Services from Evolve IP can reduce or eliminate your need to buy or upgrade that equipment in the first place.

The Environment Might Become a Regulatory Issue

Reducing your carbon footprint may soon become a legal requirement for many businesses. In fact, many manufacturing businesses are already incented to do the right thing for the environment and already receive and trade energy credits based on their carbon footprint.

A carbon footprint is “the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product” (UK Carbon Trust 2008). Power and cooling use figure into your organization’s carbon footprint.

Environmentally Conscious and Cost Effective

For the most part, going “green” has meant additional expenses to the business. Rarely are there situations where environmental responsibility and potential cost savings collide. Evolve IP’s Cloud-Based Technologies offer businesses a unique opportunity to respect the environment, increase productivity, and, potentially, save some green.

(1)Source: Gartner, Inc. "Eight Critical Forces Shape Enterprise Data Center Strategies"
by Rakesh Kumar, 02/08/07