| Green IT Module |
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Think beyond the buzzwords and take action! Sustainable computing, Green IT, and Carbon Footprint are all buzzwords in times where human impact on the climate is resulting in the deterioration of our planet. If you want to contribute and make your organization greener, it means you have to take action. The Metricus Green-IT Module allows you to define a baseline for your organization and start working towards reducing your carbon footprint. |
In order to reduce your carbon footprint you have to first know what your existing carbon footprint is. There are many online calculators available for this, but do you really know what is happening within your IT organization? What resources are you utilizing right now and what are the areas for energy and resource reduction? Metricus Green IT KPIs will tell you how your IT organization is performing and what the areas of improvement are. Simply select the KPIs that are relevant to your organization and start working towards a greener IT environment.
Here are a number of metrics that are included in the Green-IT Module.
| Metric name | Description |
| % IT Assets Procured with a Silver/Gold APEAT Star | EPEAT is a database with IT assets that comply with Energy Star 4.0. This means that the IT assets have reduced levels of cadmium, lead, and mercury and are easier to upgrade and recycle. |
| % Purchased Printer Paper - Recycled | Recycled printing paper has a reduced impact on the environment. The EPA has found that making paper from recycled materials results in 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution. This means that every ton of recycled paper keeps almost 60 pounds of pollutants, which would have been produced if the paper had been manufactured from virgin resources, out of the atmosphere . |
| IT Organization Carbon Footprint | This is a measure of the impact that someone’s activities will have on the environment, measured in units of carbon dioxide produced. Reducing carbon footprints is beneficial to the environment, which is why there are calculators to measure and reduce the footprints. |
| % Energy Using Renewable Sources (Green Energy) | % of green energy of the total energy indicates how much of energy utilization comes from renewable energy sources. |
| % Data Centers ISO 14001:2004 Certified | The ISO 14001:2004 standard specifies requirements for an environmental management system (EMS), which provides a framework for an organization to control the environmental impacts of its activities, products, and services, and to continually improve its environmental performance. |
| Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) | PUE is calculated by dividing the total power usage of a data center by the power usage of IT equipment (computer, storage, and network equipment as well as switches, monitors, and workstations to control the data center). CIOs working that equation should ideally end up with a number somewhere around 1.6, though many now have a PUE of as much as 3.0, according to The Green Grid, a consortium of energy-conscious IT professionals. |
| % Servers Located in Data Centers | Centralizing servers in a datacenter or using virtualization techniques maximizes the efficiency of infrastructure use. |
Click here to see an example of a KPI report card that includes all Metric Tags
Improving your carbon footprint requires a thorough analysis of the way you are using resources to deliver IT services. Metricus provides a powerful engine to transform data from your IT organization into effective decision making information. Metricus uses Microsoft's Business Intelligence suite (leader in Gartner's Magic Quadrant) and deploys this to you in a hassle-free, online environment. The Green IT Module includes template Scorecards, Dashboards and reports that can be customized to address your requirements.
The purpose of a Scorecard is to tell you at any point in time how you are performing against a set target. Scorecards will tell you if you are on-track and if the trend is going the right direction. Color coded icons visualize this information allowing you to see in one glance how your Green Initiatives are performing.
Metricus - Green IT Scorecard
The Green IT Scorecard will inform you how you are performing against predefined targets for the KPIs that you selected. You can use the KPIs from the Green IT module, but can also add your own KPIs or modify existing KPIs to meet your business needs. Color codes provide a visual indication and the trend icon will tell you if performance is improving or degrading.
The Green IT Dashboard provides a clear and transparant view on the performance of the IT organization when it comes to environmental sustainability. Individual KPIs roll-up in various categories and the dashboard provides a color-code per category. IT Managers and other relevant stakeholders can log-in to Metricus on a weekly or monthly basis to see how the organization is performing on predefined Green KPI indicators.
Metricus - Green IT Dashboard
The categories and indicators in this dashboard can be customized further according to your specific requirements.
The Metricus Green IT Module includes templates for various types of reports and includes both static as well as dynamic reports.
| Static Reports | Static reports allow you to create the reports that are used for monthly progress and performance meetings. Static reports include graphs, tables, gauges, charts and the ability to include data tables for every graph. This in line with how most organizations manage their reports now in Excel, however now these reports are created automatically and now provide clear and reliable information in the form of KPIs that are relevant to the business |
| Dynamic Reports | Dynamic reports allow for interactive analysis of information at any point in time. You can analyze KPIs from various angles and simply drill-up or down into a graph or chart to further analyze information. Using Microsoft Business Intelligence the possibilities that Metricus provides are endless and include dynamic charts, pivot tables, decomposition trees, Six Sigma charts, and more.. |
| MS office export | Every report that is available in your Metricus Workspace can be exported seamlessly to MS office applications or to PDF. Every report, chart, table, scorecard, dashboard has a menu that allows you to directly publish to Microsoft Excel or Microsof PowerPoint. Metricus makes IT performance management accessible to any IT organization. |
The Metricus Framework provides various management tools that can help you successfully manage the performance of your IT projects
| Collaboration | Ability to set up collaboration mechanisms within Metricus. This includes everything required to initiate, manage and track improvement initiatives |
| Communication | Provides the communication mechanisms required to manage your IT performance management process. This includes message boards, alerts and calendar features |
| User Management | Allows you to manage the stakeholders in your organization who have access to Metricus. This include the ability to assign individual scorecards, dashboards and reports to specific users ensuring that everyone has adequate access levels. |
Green IT KPIs requires data from various sources and include both information that is stored in financial systems, transactional systems as well as data that not always is stored within a database Typically this type of data resides with different stakeholders who are not always within a similar team or boundary. Metricus provides 'Easy Data Templates' that each stakeholder can populate on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis and then send this information to Metricus. The Metricus Engine automatically processes data from these sources and populates KPIs, allowing you to measure, manage and improve your Green IT initiatives.
