Analyzing the Impact of Green IT on CtrlS and Infosys Operations

This report provides a detailed analysis of the impact of Green IT practices on two prominent IT firms in India, CtrlS and Infosys. The study begins with an abstract and table of contents, followed by an introduction to the concept of Green IT and its growing significance in the current century, emphasizing the importance of sustainability in IT. The organizational backgrounds of CtrlS and Infosys are presented, highlighting their roles and services in the IT sector. The report delves into IS planning and literature analysis, discussing Green IT practices, adoption strategies, and green computing solutions, including reduction of paper waste, recycling, and energy conservation. Application of Green IT practices such as green computing, energy efficiency in data centers, and green cloud computing are explored. A comparative analysis of IS planning is conducted for both companies, followed by a literature review, responses from CtrlS and Infosys, and ultimately, the conclusion. The report aims to understand how green IT functions can be performed by IT organizations and the impact of green initiatives on organizational operations and environmental performance, supported by references to relevant research and studies.

Impact of Green Information Technology
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Abstract
Sustainable development is an extensively discussed subject throughout the world and there has
been growing stress on organizations to accept practices which are environment-friendly. Among
the most critical practices of organizations, Green information technology (IT) practices are
much crucial, a majority of organizations in present days use a certain form of IT in order to
conduct regular transactions. With tremendous explorations of IT and a variety of new electronic
devices being developed constantly, the requirement of green IT has become much important in
order to minimize the environmental impact of using such technologies. The term green IT
mentions the practice of using energy wisely and efficiently and also minimizing the harmful
effect of using technology. It is fundamentally a stable sustainable method towards the
accomplishment of a fit and clean atmosphere without sacrificing the requirement and needs of
technologies for the current and future generation. Based on this aspect, the paper analyses the
way green IT functions can be performed by IT organizations in present days. It also
demonstrates green IT activities conducted by two IT firms in India namely CtrlS and Infosys.
The objective is to understand the impact of green IT on organizational operations and activities
taken by organizations to enhance environmental performance through undertaking green
initiatives.
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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Organizational Background.............................................................................................................5
CtrlS.............................................................................................................................................5
Infosys..........................................................................................................................................5
IS Planning.......................................................................................................................................5
IS Planning Literature Analysis...................................................................................................6
Green IT...................................................................................................................................6
Green IT practices....................................................................................................................6
Adoption of Green IT Practices...............................................................................................7
Green Computing Solutions....................................................................................................8
Application of Green IT Practices...........................................................................................9
Energy Efficiency Framework for Cloud Computing...........................................................10
Comparative Analysis for IS Planning..........................................................................................11
Infosys........................................................................................................................................11
CtrlS...........................................................................................................................................13
Comparative Analysis....................................................................................................................14
Literature Analysis.........................................................................................................................15
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Responses from CtrlS Data Center............................................................................................17
Responses from Infosys.............................................................................................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................23
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Introduction
Green IT is an evolving subject and matters concerning it are increasing issue for business and
organizations in the current century. Sustainability is turning into a vital subject in IT in order to
secure the future. In recent times, more particular emphasis on greening IT and information
system (IS) has been pertinent all through the globe. A growth in green IT practices is also
happening in different organizations. Organizations are under increasing stress from industrial
players, clients, government officials, and social groups to apply sustainable business practices.
Applying sustainable business performances, for instance, acceptance of green IT practices gives
a win-win condition for the stakeholders of an organization. It has hence become vital for
organizations in present days to integrate a sustainable attitude in their policy (Radu, 2017).
Organizations use IT directly or indirectly in order to understand the environmental and social
advantages of greening. Research has demonstrated that organizations obtain an advantage with
respect to financial worth and economic performance from green business practices, as these
practices result in minimization of expenses. Simultaneously, acceptance of green IT practices
assists organizations to release normative stress arriving from different stakeholders. Balancing
commercial and environmental performance has currently become a key strategic concern for
organizations. Leading organizations throughout the world have growingly identified the
significance of administering environmental performance (Mishra & et. al., 2012). Based on this
aspect, the report is going to analyze the impact of green IT in two companies, which are CtrlS
and Infosys.
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Organizational Background
CtrlS
CtrlS was established in the year 2007. With the increasing demand for electronic data storage
and digital information, companies like CtrlS has become important for providing remote data
storage facilities, data processing and distribution of the huge amount of data. There are a large
group of servers in CtrlS which are connected together and provides centralized information
storage and online information accessibility to organizations. The organization has developed its
capabilities to give a complete set of offerings from platform level facilities, which comprise
datacenter set-up, data storage facility, data backup facility, hardware to operating system layers
and network to security layers (CtrlS Datacenters Ltd, 2019).
Infosys
Infosys is an IT organization that delivers business consulting, IT and outsourcing services to
organizations. It is an international leader in next-generation digital facilities and consulting. The
company assists customers in different nations to circumnavigate their digital transformation. It
steers the customers by their digital journey. The company helps to empower artificial
intelligence (AI) driven core that supports prioritizing the execution of the digital transformation.
Infosys also allow organizations with agile digital at scale to provide an unprecedented degree of
performance and customer satisfaction. It also provides big data and cloud services to customers
(Infosys, 2019).
IS Planning
In order to understand about green, IT practices attitudes of respondents towards IT, an interview
has been conducted with representatives of both Infosys and CtrlS. The respondents have
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responded positively with the interview and their reactions have provided significant
understanding regarding the impact of green IT.
IS Planning Literature Analysis
Green IT
Green IT denotes plan and development of an information system which supports sustainable
business procedure. Throughout the past few years, the advancement of technology and related
business practices has transformed many organizations into electronic businesses. For
organizations, IT growingly plays a vital part in changing and creating business prospects (Chen,
2011). Then again, environmental aspects like pollution and global warming, in combination
with limited accessibility of resources and growing expense of energy are generating critical
issues for the sustainability of the international economy. In this context, IT has the capability to
develop a supportable economy and society. Specifically, the existing environmental calamity is
going to require and result in environment friendly and more energy effective businesses. It is in
this extensive background of technology and sustainability connection, green IT has appeared an
important concern for organizations (Molla, 2011). Murugesan (2012) stated that companies that
accept green IT activities can obtain an advantage through better energy effectiveness, which
eventually benefits them financially.
Green IT practices
There are many technologies and activities that establish green IT. These practices comprise the
use of cooperative technologies, such as video chatting, organizational carbon and emission
controlling and energy informatics systems among others. The green practices also comprise
applying strategies for utilizing IT in order to manage carbon emissions, energy and other
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resources of an organization. Due to this, the utilization of IT to improve energy effectiveness
and the transformative ability of IT in handling energy effectiveness has been projected (Watson
2011). IT can shape the behaviors of people and companies with respect to enhancing business
and environmental performance. Furthermore, IT can enhance carbon efficiency as contribution
to the production structure by augmenting the assembly procedure. Furthermore, Melville (2012)
defined that IT has the transformative ability to develop an environmentally sustainable culture.
For instance, RFID technology can be used by companies in order to label and monitor every
element of pollution and allocate and quantify the external environmental expenses to the
society, with respect to poor air and water quality. In this type of ability of IT, companies can
utilize this data to manage the environmental performance.
Implementation of Green IT Practices
The utilitarian viewpoint gives a valuable notional lens by which to assess the managerial
reaction to environmental aspects, as it considers that influential stress outside the market plays
an important part in making companies reactive to environmental issues. Butler (2011)
discovered that regulative, institutional and rational pressure from the social environment
determines the structural area IT and reaction of different companies, specifically with respect to
green IT activities. Industrial players, investors, and consumers utilize cultural and rational
encouragements, while industry morals bring normative stresses to bear the environmental
problems on business organizations. Normative, cultural and rational encouragements are much
delicate in influencing organizational reactions towards environmental problems. Social outlooks
can spread by organizations through connections like trade relations and professional
memberships. Cultural prospects of social players play a vital part in inspiring anxiety regarding
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environmental problems to a degree at which there is stress in terms of supervisory verdicts and
legitimate risks (Greening & Gray, 2014).
Green Computing Solutions
Reduction of paper waste: There are various methods of nullifying the use of paper. Since
computers and electronic devices have become much popular, different activities can be
completed with it. Advanced way of communication such as email, messaging and social
networking has brought communication to fingertips. Furthermore, paper can also be saved as an
increasing number of organizations are intending to transform them to a paperless way of
operation.
Recycle and utilization: Organizations can discard obsolete or unwelcome electronic tool in a
suitable and ecologically accountable way. Computers have toxin components and chemicals
which can release injurious gases into the atmosphere. Therefore these devices should not be
discarded in a landfill. Rather, organizations can recycle them.
Purchasing environmentally sound products: Organizations can purchase products which are
labeled as green and safe for the environment. These products help to minimize degradation
generated by power consumption to the environment. Products with high stars can help to
minimize energy consumption and hence effective for the environment and also for reducing the
power-related expenses.
Conservation of energy: Every electronic device consumes energy, which has been developed
from various nonrenewable energy resources. Therefore, in order to consume energy efficiently,
organizations can accept proper practices and techniques, so that the electronic devices can be
used only in times of actual requirement (Agarwal, 2014).
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Application of Green IT Practices
Green Computing: With the improvement of technology, the amount of computer systems has
enhanced, amplifying the power consumption and hazardous elements. Therefore, the
requirement for green computing came into existence. Green computing mostly acts for making
the environment biologically tolerable. This indicates that its key objectives are to safeguard the
environment from the harmful consequences of usage of high computing instruments. It
concentrates mostly to reduce the impact of engineering procedures and developments of the
surrounding environment. The diverse methods of green computing are a reduction of electronic
waste, reduction of carbon emission through working on energy effectiveness and switching to
the ways which minimize the effect on the surroundings (Dhawan, 2017).
Effective Resource Power Management in Data Center: data centers are mostly working
areas where data is processed, stored and organized. Keeping all the data available all the time
results in significant power consumption, which is the basis of hazardous gases. The energy
consumption ratio of organizations’ data centers is half of the amount of energy used and
hazardous gas released by other works of the organization. Data center’s hosting cloud
computing applications consume considerable power, supporting to high operational expenses
and carbon footprint to the atmosphere. With power shortage, global warming and climate
change resulting to the environmental concerns in current times, the power treatment of data
centers has become an important concern. Utilizing power conscious scheduling methods,
variable resource management, minimal virtual machine design and live migration can vastly
enhance data centers’ green performance (Ainin, 2015).
Green Cloud Computing in Energy Effectiveness: Cloud computing is an extremely scalable
and inexpensive arrangement for running data centers and web applications. The increasing
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demand for cloud infrastructure has intensely enhanced energy usage of data centers, which has
turned into a crucial concern. Presently, the perception of cloud computing not only redesigned
the area of sharing structures, but also essentially transformed how organizations use data. Cloud
computing is providing utilities oriented IT services to the users globally. It empowers hosting
cloud data requests from user, technical and commercial areas. Data centers introducing cloud
computing services use a considerable amount of power, supporting to high expenditures and
increased carbon footprints. Hence, it necessitates green cloud computing solutions, which not
only saves power but also operational expenses. Green cloud computing is the combination of
energy effective computing and cloud computing. In a technical way, green cloud computing can
have two aspects. First is for the software technology, the objective is to create such methods
which can improve the effectiveness of programs, storage, and power consumption. Second is for
hardware technology. There is a requirement for such technology which not only reduces the
usage of power but also makes it economically effective with different methods (Tawade, 2015).
Green Computing in Big Data System: Big data is usually systematized through a shared file
system, over which, the corresponding procedures can be performed for comprehending the bid
data analytics. The corresponding procedures can be plotted in diverse substitute methods to the
computing stage. Hence, every substitute will perform inversely concerning environmentally
relevant parameters like power usage.
Energy Effectiveness Structure for Cloud Computing
Zhiming (2012) has recommended ways for enhancing better resource usage through dynamic
and indolent energy usage by finish time reduction. This method minimizes energy usage by
permitting extra servers to stay in an indolent condition so that power is not used when these
servers are not needed. This method considers the QoS of cloud data centers. Rajkumar (2013)
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recommended an innovative method for energy efficiency in three methods which are
architectural values for energy effective control of cloud system, energy effective resource
distribution strategies (such as scheduling procedures bearing in mind QoS) and innovative
software for energy efficiency in cloud system. On the other hand, Uddin (2012) has familiarized
an exclusive model in order to enhance the energy performance of data centers elements, which
is subject to diverse resource pools and diverse factors, such as power usage, resource usage, and
workload among others. The model emphasizes the significance of applying green metrics such
as Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the data center with
respect to power usage and carbon emission. The model is dependent on virtualization and cloud
computing to enhance resource usage of connected servers. Kontogiannis (2011) has developed
an exclusive instrument named Adaptive Workload Balancing (AWLB) procedure for cloud
datacenter oriented web systems which deal with agents into two magnitudes, the online data
center, and online servers. AWLB procedure supports procedure arrangement for signaling
objectives within web change and data center nodes and also uses other procedures for balancing
the power.
Comparative Analysis for IS Planning
Infosys
LEED Certification: As a part of green initiative Infosys has been awarded as LEED platinum
certification by the US green building council. It has developed premises to high energy
efficiency standards and applied profound retrofits to an old building. Throughout its journey
towards LEED certification, Infosys has demonstrated effectiveness and leadership in applying
sustainable operations strategies on existing buildings (Infosys, 2019).
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