Greener Computing for small businesses
Green issues affect us all, its all over the news, phrases like "Carbon Footprint" and "global warming" are banded around like there is no tomorrow. (And some would believe that may even be the case)
Even the smallest of businesses uses computers for everything from just sending letters and emails to accounting and CRM Systems. Whether you have a network of PC's or just the one there are steps you can take and systems you can use to limit your businesses environmental impact.
What's in it for you ?
Aside from the obvious benefits of lowering your electricity bill, there are known benefits of having a stamp of "green" approval where clients would prefer to deal with your company rather than another due to your ethical procedures.
For smaller offices, the advice on the left would go some way to helping.
What else can you do ?
Recycle your old P.C's
Under the WEEE directive, certain equipment can be returned to your vendor or the manufacturer for recycling (If you do this, be sure to delete all data from your hard drives)
If you wanted to be really ethical, several charities accept older equipment for shipping to third world countries.
Personally. If the reason you have P.C's in the office is for email, accounting, a little bit of web surfing and data processing, then why do you need a brand spanking new P.C. Why not turn that old P.C. into a "Dumb Terminal". Thin Client Computing as it is known requires specific software to be running on your server but has many benefits as well as the green ones, backups, updates and installations of software are easier, all the processing is done on the server.
When the time comes to replace your old office server, or add a new one for printing, databases, emails or whatever, why not consider virtualization. This is using software that makes it possible to run two or more logical servers within the confines of one physical server hardware. This used to be the province of higher end Enterprises with big budgets, but it is more affordable than ever, with some vendors even offering free alternatives.
