CA Community






This Blog
Syndication

June 2010 - Posts

IT: A World of Untapped Enthusiasm

Published: June 30 2010, 10:30 AM | no comments
by Jim Mercer

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of participating in CA Technologies’ annual user conference, CA World.  This is a great place to connect with peers and learn more about technology solutions available from CA Technologies and our partners.  My role was quite simple, I was hanging around the CA ecoSoftware demo stations within the exhibition center.  This is always an interesting experience since this conference attracts a diverse audience and you never really know who you’re going to meet on the floor of the exhibition center. 

Initially I ran into the type of customers and partners that I would expect.  These are people who manage energy or carbon and are in some manner responsible for reducing their organization’s spiraling energy costs and dependence upon carbon producing fossil fuels.  CA’s ecoSoftware solution is well-equipped to help in all of these areas; so these were good discussions.  The dialogue focused on real business needs such as limited energy capacity for data centers; electrical utility bills that are eroding profitability and mandates for cost and carbon reductions across the organization.  If you are reading this blog and are unfamiliar with how CA ecoSoftware can help in these areas please check out our site: http://www.ca.com/us/energy-sustainability-management.aspx

What I did not anticipate was all the interest we got from people who had no organizational responsibilities for saving energy, carbon or associated costs.  While it’s true that some of this interest was in understanding the underlying technology of CA ecoSoftware, much of it was real excitement about how CA Technologies is using IT technology to address an issue that we’re all very passionate about.  These were IT people who care about the environment and how their organization’s use of energy and natural resources contributes to the problem.  When they saw how we are using our own technology to address these important issues, it really resonated with them.  One gentleman I spoke with told me that as an IT professional he’d always felt a level of guilt because he saw his professional IT work as only contributing to the problem of energy consumption.

This really is a bit of a Déjà vu moment.  Over the past 30 years organizations have come to realize that the strength of IT should be used to address business problems; optimize processes and help create strategic advantages over their competition.  Just as IT helps with running your organization’s accounting system or your website, why wouldn’t we leverage this technology to solve problems with consumption of energy and natural resources?   Of course we should.  Just like any business problem, organizations need the power of technology to effectively measure, report, govern and take action on their energy and environmental impact.

What is really exciting is there appears to be a growing interest amongst IT professionals in using technology to enable their organizations to effectively save energy and reduce their carbon liability. These are not just young professionals (reports suggest that young professionals are more environmentally conscious and care more about corporate sustainability than older people in the workforce), but also seasoned technologist that care about the environment and are excited about the opportunity to use their IT skills to make a difference.  They watch the news; they see the tragic oil spill in the gulf and other environmental impacts that are directly related to our insatiable appetite for fossil fuels and other natural resources.  These individuals no longer want to be associated with contributing to the problem; they want to be a part of the solution.  Most importantly, along with their good intentions they bring the technical skills that could help make things happen; sounds like we’ve found an untapped resource that organizations can use to drive sustainability.

So, here is the dilemma.  It seems the mainstream IT professionals have very little insight into what, if anything, their organizations are doing to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and other natural resources.  When I asked the people I met about activities within their own organizations, some knew a little, but pretty much all of them expressed that they would get involved if only they knew how.  These people are eager to help and have the technical competence to contribute in unique ways.  Unfortunately, their organizations are either unaware of their passion for this cause or they are not making an effort to exploit this resource. 

To me, the keys to bringing these IT professions on-board are engagement and empowerment.  They need to be encouraged to contribute ideas and be able to see results.  It cannot be some bit-bucket suggestion box, but a mechanism where ideas are actually heard and they have a voice in what actions are taken.  Of course this has the added affect of providing other organizational benefits such as improvements in employee morale and the sense of ownership they will have towards improving the sustainability of your organization.

So, how does an organization best get the word out and get their IT staff engaged in tracking and saving energy?

Have you invited your IT staff to partner with you in reducing energy consumption?

Do they feel as though their ideas matter and they are empowered to promote change?

I’d be curious to hear what has worked well and not so well.   I can only speculate as to how much energy and cost an organization could save by righting the ship and bringing these enthusiastic IT staff members onboard.

Share this post:  
Tags: , ,
Leave a comment

 

By: Jim Mercer
Jim Mercer is a Senior Advisor in the CA ecoSoftware business unit focusing on energy and sustainability management. He was an early member of the CA ecoSoftware team and has helped to shape the underlying technologies and methodologies His responsibilities extend across a variety of areas including...
Read More..

It’s Emissions Reporting Time – Why the days of spreadsheets should be long gone

Published: June 28 2010, 02:15 PM | no comments
by Duncan Bradford

It’s been just a couple of weeks since I returned from a great Sustainable Brands ’10 conference in Monterey, CA (if you weren’t able to attend, check out this extensive recap of related blog posts by The Green Economy). 

 

Apart from having to deal with the hardship of visiting Monterey… the conference also coincided (almost) with the end of May.  Those of us that manage emissions reporting or are involved with compiling emissions data for reports know that this is a busy time of the year – when the CDP has its annual deadline for data submissions. 

 

At CA Technologies we have been reporting to the CDP for a number of years now, and I’m pleased to say that with each passing year our numbers improve.  I wear several hats at CA Technologies, with two of my main focus areas being to support the commercial activities of our CA ecoSoftware business unit through market education, and to be a key contributor to our annual reporting process for the CDP.   This gives me first-hand experience understanding the complexities of emissions reporting – and the challenges a large organization must face in collecting vast amounts of data from so many stakeholders across the company and geographic boundaries, and then the effort involved in making sense of all of that information to report it in a way that makes sense and is defensible. 

 

In terms of reporting, there is always room for improvement.  With the information we uncover each year, we can then make adjustments to help improve for the next year, which is shown through our increasing CDLI score.  There have been two important driving factors in our ability to improve over time – process changes, which are always key, and technology, which has been the biggest enabler allowing us to report more efficiently.  Relying on the old way of doing things – largely spreadsheets and email – makes for a herculean effort come reporting time.  Because in addition to the data and the number crunching (you have to make sense of all that data), these reports require a good deal of narrative, giving companies an opportunity to explain their results.  By streamlining the data portion, the team has been able to focus more on the narrative – and arriving at that narrative is easier with the data already available and presented in a more efficient way.

 

Today, I know that a large proportion of respondents will be using spreadsheets for their reporting to the CDP and other stakeholders - which takes me back to the Sustainable Brands 2010 conference in Monterey.  I was a panelist (along with other industry experts) for the 'Getting Beyond the Spreadsheet: New Tools for Measuring Impact' session – where we talked about a vision for helping organizations to report in a more efficient and automated fashion.  Some of the top issues raised where: 

1) Just in time reporting – i.e. not compiling those numbers at year end (or beyond that) and then realizing that you are way off your proposed targets.  We’re going to see more demands on companies to report more often – stakeholders are beginning to demand more transparency in this area.

2) Verification, audit and scalability of data collection.  This is not a small issue, especially for large, multi-national organizations.  And as government legislation or regulation comes into play (we’re seeing this in regions like the UK with the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme), the need for data to be defensible and auditable will continue to grow.  Best to get a handle on this in the early stages!

3) Tracking multiple sources, spanning multiple contributors - creates even more spreadsheet scaling issues.  Organizations should be looking for solutions to this problem now.   
We’re still very much in the early stages in this market – and there’s a lot of room for companies to improve their processes with the help of technology to make reporting on emissions so much more than just a nuisance that rolls around each year. 

 

Share this post:  
Tags: , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

By: Duncan Bradford
Duncan Bradford joined CA in 1998. Currently Duncan holds the position of Senior Advisor within the CA ecoSoftware business unit. He is currently focused on working closely with several customers to ensure the success of their CA ecoSoftware implementations. Duncan is also helping the internal CA...
Read More..

Latest Version of CA ecoSoftware Now Available

Published: June 21 2010, 09:40 AM | no comments
by Christine Needles

CA ecoSoftware dashboard shows information about the sustainability performance of suppliersToday we announced the availability of CA ecoSoftware 2.0, the latest version of our energy, carbon and sustainability management solution designed to help organizations reduce carbon emissions, manage natural resource consumption, and cut energy costs.  You can read more about this news and access a range of resources (including videos from Tesco and Datotel, product images, and more) in our new Energy & Sustainability Management Press Kit.

How do the latest features help our customers achieve their sustainability and energy efficiency goals?

"Logicalis has chosen CA ecoSoftware to further improve our governance and operational management of energy and carbon related business issues as we expand our services in the Cloud," said Chris Gabriel, director of marketing for Logicalis.  "We recognize that many of our customers see environmental performance as a core business issue and that the effective management of these issues is now seen as good business making sound commercial sense. It is CA Technologies reputation for innovative and high quality management software that has been an important differentiator in our selection of the CA ecoSoftware solution."

The latest release supports energy and sustainability management at all levels of the organization. Our software enables customers to monitor the electricity used by IT equipment or cooling units in data centers and buildings across the enterprise. It also can help customers track sustainability risks and opportunities and help them execute on their strategy to manage sustainability at corporate HQ or at the level of the boardroom. CA ecoSoftware can be used by people in different functions and at different levels to measure impacts, reduce costs and communicate progress.

Users can drive consistency in reporting - with an expanded set of features primed for global organizations.  Highlights include:

  • A new reporting framework that allows users to pre-populate reports - such as Global Reporting Initiative G3 - with one click
  • Customers can input and manage programs and data on a local level with their own regional currencies/metrics/units, with the flexibility to report using a single currency/metric/unit
  • CA ecoGovernance is available in 9 languages out of the box: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese

Customers can also reduce costs and improve overall energy efficiency with technology designed to streamline the integration between CA ecoSoftware and other systems.  A sampling of these features include:

  • The new CA ecoMeter Gateway supports access to heterogeneous systems using Modbus TCP, BACnet and SNMP communication protocols
  • Direct integration with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager software, allowing users to benchmark energy performance of commercial buildings using EPA's 1 to 100 rating scale. Buildings that achieve a 75 or higher on this scale are eligible to earn the ENERGY STAR label
  • Ability to integrate with traditional building management systems

In addition, CA ecoMeter features several enhancements that can help users to better implement and manage their energy efficiency programs:

  • Visual dashboards allow users to monitor energy efficiency trends, including historical PUE and DCiE metrics, for insight into how these calculated metrics vary over time, such as days, weeks or months
  • An enhanced discovery process enables the system to automatically discover devices with which it can communicate, which can help accelerate the process of setting up and maintaining operational energy management, especially across multiple locations.

David Metcalfe, director of analyst firm Verdantix said, "Measurement and reporting continue to be primary driving forces for many companies looking at sustainability and carbon management software solutions. CA ecoSoftware is well-equipped to meet these environmental resource tracking and reporting needs today and enterprises should feel confident that the solution will grow with them as their needs mature and the scope of their sustainability and carbon management initiatives expand."

Read the press release for an overview of CA ecoSoftware 2.0 features, and for a 4-minute overview of our product capabilities, view our new online demo.

 

Share this post:  
Tags: , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

 

By: Christine Needles
Christine Needles ( @cmneedles ) is a director of communications at CA Technologies, working with the Cloud Computing business. She is immersed in the world of B2B public relations and marketing communications, with 11 years of experience spanning several PR firms, until joining the communications team...
Read More..

Why Energy Management Is a Business Imperative

Published: June 17 2010, 08:30 AM | 4 Comment(s)
by Dhesikan Ananchaperumal

Until recently, many organizations did not place a big focus on having an energy management program implemented for their operations. But the trend is changing rapidly, and energy management is becoming a necessity for cost efficient operations, to support highly available services and for becoming better environmental stewards.

Energy management is not a new topic at all. It has played -- and continues to play -- a significant role in many industries, particularly where the entire production cycle consumes huge amounts of energy from different sources. Whether it is a highly sophisticated plant operation or a managed service provider (MSP) providing IT services in a data center, improving the way energy is used in these facilities can lower operational costs, increase availability and reduce emissions.

However, the complexity involved in implementing such programs can be technically challenging. Yet at the same time, we all know that the benefits are huge with such implementations!

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy conducts technology showcases to encourage industry adoption of more energy efficient technologies and practices.  By implementing best practices across industries, we can boost productivity and help achieve regional and national goals for energy conservation, the economy, and the environment.

Let’s take a look at an example.  There was a case study conducted a while back for a large chemical plant in Texas.  With proper energy management programs and tools, this plant was able to achieve significant energy cost savings.  This surplus is leveraged throughout the company’s supply chain to provide value to their customers. This is tremendously huge! Overall results showed a 23% reduction in energy intensity (consumption per unit of production) that provided over $18.5M in cost savings and reduction of roughly 67000 tons of CO2 emissions.

The study cited several key elements to success that I think we should all make note of and consider as best practices in our programs:

  • An effective collaborative framework that included appropriate team members at all levels in project selection, evaluation and decision making
  • Involvement and financial support by senior management
  • Empowering the team members to carry out the energy management mission
  • Selection of the right tools and technologies to carry out the program.

Now, for another example, let me focus on those organizations with large data centers complaining about unplanned downtime in their data centers due to power and cooling issues. Why is this happening? The reason is very simple to begin with:  no effective communications between facilities and IT teams. Which raises the question, how many IT organizations are using energy data points in their Change Management process today?

In addition, the latest technology trends -- such as dense form factor servers and virtualization technologies -- have increased the rack density. This increase in rack density demands more power and cooling at the rack level. With an implementation of a virtualization project within a data center, the number of racks of physical servers may be reduced, but in this much smaller area now dedicated to virtualized servers, the power and cooling requirements are much higher.

Is adding more cooling units the solution to this problem? It may or may not be.  Air flow dynamics within a datacenter happens to be a complicated science. Not only that, but adding cooling units will increase your cost of operations, for sure. Are these facilities devices monitored efficiently for different variables that can be polled from these units? Advanced alerting techniques such as “time over threshold” and “deviation from normal,” etc., can be used to identify the failure states before they occur. 

It’s probably becoming clear in my various examples that energy management is a continuous process that needs to be in place for operations to maintain high availability, thereby avoiding violation of SLAs to customers and potential revenue loss.  An added benefit of implementing an energy management program is the cost savings. Best practices have generally said to think about keeping data centers at a particular operating temperature as per recommended standards. But, if we take a different approach in which the heat generated within a data center and heat removed from the data center can be identified and kept constant using technology, then this will result in automated cost savings related to energy.

There are so many important reasons why energy management should be a top priority for organizations of all sizes, both in IT and in other industries, whether relying on cloud computing technology or resources in local data centers. Energy management can help to ensure high levels of availability for the services offered to users and customers, while reducing overall operational costs and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Much more to come on this topic in a future post…

Share this post:  
Tags: , ,
Leave a comment

 

By: Dhesikan Ananchaperumal
Dhesikan Ananchaperumal is a Vice President of CA’s ecoSoftware business unit focusing on energy and sustainability management. He is responsible for the overall strategy and approach, product management, development, quality assurance, customer implementations, and supporting engineering. He began his...
Read More..

Who Are My Stakeholders and Should I Care?

Published: June 07 2010, 11:15 AM | no comments
by Terrence Clark

On the cover of the May 25th Wall Street Journal there were two articles that caught my eye.  One was about BP and its efforts in the gulf and the other was on Nestle and its bottled water business.  The articles highlighted to me the importance of stakeholder engagement and communication.  Many companies talk about it, some companies pay lip service to it, and others actually use it to help guide their business strategy.

When looking at the disaster in the gulf most people agree that BP hasn't done a good job in communicating with its stakeholders.  They have been criticized from the beginning about how they have been handling the oil spill.  Few would argue with the fact that BP is culpable and therefore has a responsibility to take appropriate actions to address the situation.  That is pretty black and white. However, what has made matters worse for them is that they have done a poor job communicating to its key stakeholders involved in this situation.

In contrast, I was reading Deborah Ball's article on Nestle titled "Bottled Water Pits Nestle vs. Greens," which talks about how Nestle is looking to tap into an Oregon spring as a source for its water bottle business.  At first blush, and given the title, one might assume it is another example of a corporation pillaging some of the earth's dwindling natural resources, and doing so with total disregard to the community.  This is how I expected the article to play out. However, it didn't turn out that way.

A number of interesting points are highlighted in the article that illustrates Nestle's awareness of the importance of its stakeholders.  It shows how they are trying to engage with them in a proactive fashion.  Nestle's plan is to tap into 100 million gallons of water annually from the spring, and replace it with municipal water so as not to harm the local fish hatchery.  Nestle is running a one-year test hoping to demonstrate that the fish won't be affected by the well water.  They have support from the local community which has been struggling since the decline of the timber industry.  Nestle would build a plant that would employ workers and would pay roughly $360K annually for the municipal water.  They have also held town hall meetings, set up a hotline, and even rented out a store to answer any questions.

When I speak with organizations about sustainability, we always talk about the importance of effective communication with stakeholders.  I don't know all the details about everything that BP is doing in the gulf to rectify the mess, nor do I know much more about what Nestle is doing in Oregon than what is written in the article.  However, at the macro level, it certainly appears that one organization understands the importance of effective communication with its stakeholders and the other doesn't.

Share this post:  
Tags: , , ,
Leave a comment

 

By: Terrence Clark
Terrence Clark is a senior vice president and general manager heading up CA's ecoSoftware Business Unit at CA. His vision is to help organizations evaluate their portfolio of green choices, while showing them how they can reduce their carbon footprint, save costs, seize on opportunities and be both...
Read More..

More Posts Next page »