Customer Reviews

Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Green IT, I find the name evoking an image of the jolly green giant gone tech savvy as I find my home in southern Minnesota. However, this is a serious book covering a very *HOT* topic. The whole world is thinking green or at least they are starting to think green more and more. We hear doomsday predictions of coastal flooding due to the polar ice melts with seas rising 200 feet. We hear of super storms, which may be brewing which when compared to our current devastating hurricanes are just mere little siblings of these monsters and we wonder how much of it is true.

This book isn't all about the end of our planet as we know it, though the authors due make side comments to the subject, some in jest and some maybe more serious. What this book does, is it gets to the nitty gritty of why IT (Information Technologies) should care about the "green" movement. Make no mistake, I do believe we are in for some serious issues in the near global future in regards to our planet's ecosystem, however what Green IT does is it separates the predictions of horror from the more quantifiable facts. The book looks at what every IT professional WILL have to deal with, and that's power or lack of it due to the ever increasing demand, e-waste and it's plague on our planet, going paperless, TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), and a menagerie of other related topics, all centered around and akin to the "green" movement.

As an IT professional myself, I find this book to be a MUST read. The content is excellent and well organized. The authors show a real understanding of the challenges facing the IT world and provide excellent examples and justifications throughout the book. As an IT professional, some of the material was definitely already in my arsenal, but yet I found a significant amount of new information and some eye opening realizations along the way. I would definitely recommend this book to other IT professionals.

On a personal level, upon reading this book, I even found things which I could do on a personal level and I am now planning to do at home. The authors make good suggestions and while not all of the material presented applies to the everyday homeowner, there are definitely things that do which make this book transcend beyond the IT world. Additionally, the authors have developed a companion website, which provides links to information found in the book which I found to be an excellent extension of the book material.

Overall, I recommend this book and have found it both interesting and useful.

-Jacques the Rock

Green IT is described as a book for those in Business Information Systems
roles, which is why I bought it in the first place. However, the book covers a lot more areas than just IT-related greening. I imagine that this book would be of interest to almost anyone interested in understanding influences and actions around the current crop of green issues. The book covered such a wide range of topics, and is written so thoughtfully, I found myself really enjoying "the read". It's a real eye opener to learn about what is happening in the world, and nice to read about what is being done about it (the section on e-waste comes to mind). I'm not a big "reviewer" but I can tell you that I really enjoyed this book (and the website they put up for all of the links is a really nice touch).

This is one of the first book's on Green IT, giving you an overview of the different areas you need to look into to put a Green IT program in place. The information in this book will help you filter the greenwash hype from the reality of what will work as a succesful green program needs to align with business goals.

IBM's green commercials are short stories of what is going on in the enterpris. Executives are waking up to the benefits of going green are financial as well as good for the environment.

The Green topic is dynamic and to keep you up to date there is a web site that goes along with the book [...], providing links to web content.

I've given a few copies of this book to friends who are interested in the Green IT topic, and they all have gained new insight. It can be ironic that a Green IT book is printed, but it is printed on 100% recycled paper, and can save travel time for people who were considering attending Green IT events.

There are multiple vendors out there selling Green IT technologies, and what is going to help you most is understanding how the pieces fit together in an overall strategy.

Take a simple step get a P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor and Fluke 62 Mini Infrared Thermometer to see your own power consumption from your own home equipment and the heat generated. And, use this book to help you prioritize.

The subject of greening your data centre is topical and timely, and this book has some useful content and suggestions. It brings to the marketplace, an organized view of what green IT is all about, expands on many topics beyond the basics, and presents a number of examples of how organizations are attacking the hot topic. It make you think about data centre efficiency, and energy conservation in a way that most of us never considered before.

However, it is very uneven in its writing style and, perhaps in the rush to get this book out, there are several errors. At times the authors borrow heavily from giants like Dell, HP and Wal-mart; while instructive, many of these stories do not resonate with small or mid-sized companies that do not have the financial strength or the industry clout to impact our suppliers and supply chains .

On balance, it is worth reading for those who are serious about greening their data centres and their companies, but it is not very readable, especially if you like accuracy.