Much as I am skeptical of bold-faced claims like “Vista is green” it does appear that Steve Ballmer is talking some sense on the subject. In Computerworld coverage of CeBIT this week it was notable that rather than talking about product Ballmer talked about best practices.
“Microsoft is to release a set of best practices for administrators running datacentres that share the energy-saving strategies the vendor is applying to its own operations, promised CEO Steve Ballmer.”
A few months ago I criticised the software giant for not responding to eco-responsibility, let alone driving it, but that all seems to be changing now. A big step forward came when Microsoft assigned responsibility for sustainability planning to one guy, Rob Bernard (who I blogged about here) . Now as the Windows Server 2008 rollout really starts to drum, Microsoft is refactoring its green assets and positioning them accordingly.
Sometimes its the basics- on the PCside for example better power management does make a difference. Discouraging users from setting up screensavers, for example, could lead to surprisingly large power savings. I think that Microsoft virtualisation is going to be a huge win here.
According to Ballmer:
“If you look at non-travel power consumption in the world today… information technology is one of the most rapidly growing power consumers on the planet,” Ballmer said. “We think we have a real responsibility… to reduce power consumption by the IT industry.
Frankly its great that CeBIT chose Green as the theme of the year – it meant all of the major IT vendors had yet another reason to think about their strategies in this area.
Asus even pitched a laptop with a bamboo case. Thanks to Treehugger for this image:
As I have said before marketing green is not a sin. Outcomes are more important than justifications. When you consider how sales of organic foods have sky-rocketed its clear consumer behaviours can change, so why not in the IT arena. Some say its all hype, well that’s fine. But use of sustainable materials, and improved energy efficiency have to be good things, whatever planet you’re on.
People love to throw stones at Microsoft, but just as the company is currently demonstrating, with a flurry of substantive announcements of better interoperability with open source from a business and technical perspective, that it can change, so its green efforts should pay dividends.