Green IT

Here at TechQuarters, we are a seriously focussed on making sure our business follows the global drive for adopting greener ‘help the environment’ principles. We implement technology and business practices to reduce our own carbon footprint.

With Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) being so high on the agenda for many businesses, we are constantly looking for new technology and solutions to help IT Managers and administrators which will reduce energy bills and helps the environment.

Remote IT support
Our business achieves over 92% remote fix rate for all our clients. This means it reduces the amount of time we have to visit your site, incurring C02 travel emissions on the environment. It also means you get a better service because the fix is quicker.

Cloud Solutions
Our Cloud solutions enable companies to provide their staff with full home working capabilities, so there’s no need to incur more C02 emissions, travelling to the office and back. We equip them with VoIP telephone handsets that connect to their head office and give them roaming capabilities in their home with headsets. Secondly, we advise and migrate companies to web based applications (SaaS – software as a service), allowing them to have a work office at home, without losing any of the normal business functions that they require. This also gives the business a return on investment, as they can reduce their headcount for office space costs.

Energy Efficient systems
We source machines from manufacturers that are good to the environment. Manufacturers are producing kit that is energy efficient. For example, over 80% of energy is being consumed while PC’s are sitting idle. Screensavers are a culprit as they consume 10 x more energy when they are on as opposed to sleep mode. Machines are now being developed to turn off automatically and hard drives go into sleep mode when they are not being used. We help our customers select energy efficient systems, which also saves them money and reduces their carbon footprint.

Thin Client Technology
Using Thin clients can really help the environment and in some cases give a 20%+ power saving in the server room and even more on the desktop end. We advise and implement Virtualization solutions for clients. They can consolidate their whole server room, minimising the level of kit required to run their operation, which has a double effect of saving space and power. To give you an idea, 5 physical servers can easily be consolidated onto 1 server with their applications and software all working from individual segmented areas on the same server. Obviously, having all the software working on one server will increase the utilization but it will still give a 20%+ saving in power.

Not to mention with Virtualization using Microsoft’s Hyper V, Terminal server or VMware, this allows users to simply connect with terminal hardware such as a Wyse unit and terminals only consume between 10 and 40W, as opposed to standard computers using between 150 and 350W. Imagine that, a potential 90% saving in power.

Virtualization
Many organisations have built up a farm of servers over time, that are always turned on and consuming power, plus a large footprint in the office. However, most of this kit only really uses about 5% of their potential workload and the rest of the time, they sit idle but still turned on.

Virtualization using Microsoft’s Hyper V or VMware, will consolidate these servers onto fewer physical servers and sometimes only needing one. Imagine that old server area only needing the space for one machine.

Not only that, TechQuarters are helping companies move to Hybrid Cloud solutions, so they can reduce their server population and take advantage of the cost efficiencies of shared resource in the cloud, that costs less to run, requires no purchase of kit and no setup costs. This reduces the companies own power requirements because they simply don’t have their servers in the office, as they use Cloud computing from hosted centres, off site.

Recycling
The WEEE directive (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment) is a European law that came into force in the UK on 1st July 2007. It aims to reduce the amount of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) going into landfill. We partner with companies who can help dispose of your old electrical goods (CRT monitors) in an environmentally friendly way.

If we perform a consolidation exercise, our partners will help you dispose of any old unwanted electrical kit and work through all the paperwork with you for compliance.

Reusing
This is all about thinking outside of the box. For instance, we purchase furniture for our office that is reconditioned, without the need to purchase new tables, chairs etc.

If older servers or hardware is made redundant during a Virtualization exercise you can reuse them and turn them into desktop computers for a staff members.