Green IT or Green technology has become a fixated area as far as budget focus and being environmentally responsible is concerned. Companies small and large are faced with new angles on how to ‘save the environment’ and cut their own costs. The benefits are sinking into corporate mindsets as IT – the largest technology industry – has been inundated with one IT cost saving solution after another.

It is being exploited globally as solutions for a greener IT emerge from Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, HP and Sun. Though, what does this mean when someone says – embrace Green IT as you will cut costs and see a higher ROI (Return on Investment).

The gains become the focus here and are being recognized and implemented. Corporations are becoming more productive due to increased efficiency. There are obvious cost savings occurring. So in a nutshell, the reason for Green IT being recognized globally is down to the business benefits it seems, rather than a ‘save the planet’ march. ROI means everything to any company. If it’s low, turnover is low and cuts occur. Usually, it’s the staff that suffers when this happens, and right now the recession is causing redundancies worldwide.

The intentions to be environmentally friendly are not as prevalent as ROI gain, just a little lower in the pecking order. Why? Green IT is embarking on a new period of growth. The vendors like Microsoft are all seeing a rise in sales with solutions for IT departments that solve all kinds of issues and at a lower cost. Energy-efficient solutions from the top vendors are saving money for companies. This, in turn, is easing the transition to a more successful annual outlook on turnover versus costs – more profit.

The Green IT solutions thus far include:
· Virtualization - The consumption of space from physical computer hardware is solved by this innovative solution being offered by top IT vendors like Microsoft. The solution reduces the amount of computer hardware resources through abstracting various components in the network. This is achieved by operating a set of systems on one piece of hardware.
· Power usage – Data centers by example are known for high energy costs due to the sheer square foot size of many buildings. This results in an extremely high use of power. Simple changes like turning off systems not needed, idle time usage when a system is not in use and using power management features present on operating systems are helping drive cost cuts and increase energy efficiency.
· Recycling – This focuses on the process of changing the way corporations deal with their day to energy consumption levels through more efficient use of resources and materials.

Green IT Business benefits will continue to keep cost and energy savings optimized as a result of these new and emerging technologies. Virtualization alone enables:
· Energy savings due to reduced wattage throughput on equipment.
· Ease of deployment of systems within an IT network having fewer hardware parts.
Employers are now encouraging their employees to save energy with an emphasis on simply turning off computers to monitoring the number of computers running on IT network architectures. This action promotes awareness and responsibility inside the office environment that is being enforced more and more each year.

So, it means this – Green IT technology results in a higher ROI as it’s simply a huge step in the cost cutting process. The ROI increase as a result of Green IT is something that will literally save crumbling businesses that grasp the huge cost-saving business benefits.

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While fast food type eating might not be good for the body, one man decided it could be better for the environment. That line of thinking is what led to the Vegawatt. A machine that reuses, and recycles vegetable oil used in deep fryers.

The premise of the VegaWatt is very simple. It turns used vegetable oil into clean heat, and energy. This eliminates the process of having to dump the oil, and just create a new batch. Once the vegetable oil has been recycled, it can provide 10-25% of a restaurant’s energy usage.

The device is about the size of a standard refrigerator, and provides some other benefits besides environmental impact. If you empty up to 70 gallons per week into the VegaWatt, you could end up saving around $800/month for energy bills. On top of your energy saving, you’ll also be eligible for income tax credit.

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Governor Schwarzenegger, no matter how many times I say it or hear it, it takes awhile for that to sink in. Ah-nold actually appears to be doing a good job out in the state of California. One of his big initiatives is to bring a ‘Green’ economy out to his state.

In this video, Governor Schwarzenegger, talks about the benefits ‘economically’ for investing in bringing green tech companies out to California. It’s both informative, and funny. Just count how many times he says ‘jacuzzi’.

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2008 might be a year that will remembered for economic hardships, but so much more happened. We saw some pretty cool technological advances. We saw some pretty crazy news as well. Today is as good a day as any to remember some of the great posts from this past year.

Is Blu-Ray Going To Lose The Format War? - There’s nothing funnier than watching two grown men argue about the life cycle of an electronic piece of media. You generally see it mostly with video gamers, arguing about who’s console is better. Here we have two journalists arguing over the existence of Blu-Ray and if the end is nigh for the format.

EA Should Be Sued For Spore (PC)/SecuROM - My favorite thing to do when blogging is to rant. I could probably make up a rant everyday, but I know that other don’t necessarily like to read personal rants all the time. My post earlier this year about EA including SecuROM on Spore is probably my favorite rant of the year. I made good points, presented evidence, and went off on a big tangent.

Gadget Of The Day: Deodorization Fabria - Freshening up your home is rarely any fun. It generally requires a plug-in, or just spraying a liquid fragrance over your furniture. If they made it like this Japanese snow gun, then my interest would pique.

Tom Hanks Tells You To Drive An Electric Car - Sometimes words aren’t needed. For this video, all I’ll say is ‘Tom Hanks’, and ‘electric cars’.

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