At SWOT NET, we are constantly looking at how technology can deliver, while ultimately remaining light in terms of both energy consumption and complexity.With rising costs on one side and budget cuts on the other, colleges and universities need creative ways to save money. “Energy consumption is a good target because it also supports campus green initiatives,” says John Speicher, public sector industry solutions manager for Cisco.
Here are four ways that campuses are reducing costs and their carbon footprints at the same time.
1.Collaborate Over the Network Instead of Across the Highway
“Web sharing and video conferencing can often replace travel between campuses, saving money, time, and greenhouse gas emissions,” says John Tuohy, education solutions manager for Cisco. University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana, uses Cisco WebEx® technology for meetings ranging from collaborating with remote architects on building blueprints to training alumni association members on development. Travel costs decreased by $1 million in 2009 alone, significantly reducing the university’s carbon footprint.
Similarly, the 53-campus Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system uses Cisco WebEx for staff software training. “The trainer reduced travel by 90 percent by eliminating three roundtrips a week of up to 10 hours apiece,” Tuohy says.
2. Build Smarter Buildings
Constructing new buildings with a single IP network instead of multiple separate networks for building systems can also reduce energy consumption. Ave Maria University in Florida took this approach in new construction, adding thousands of network-connected sensors to monitor the environment in every building on campus. The sensors communicate with automated building systems to conserve energy while making sure people are comfortable. For example, lights turn on and off automatically, depending on whether a motion sensor detects a person in the room. The university is saving an estimated $600,000 in annual utility bills and avoided $350,000 in annual personnel costs.
3. Green the Data Center
Campus data centers also are good targets for energy reduction. “A popular project is consolidating different application servers onto a private cloud platform to lower data center space, power, and cooling needs,” Speicher says. “In addition to saving energy, campuses that virtualise their applications save time for IT staff, freeing more time to work on projects for learning or administrative efficiency.”
Other campuses are reducing data center energy use by consolidating to fewer network switches with more ports apiece. The University of Arizona reduced power consumption per port by 30 percent by using Cisco Nexus® switches in the data center. And the Apollo Group, parent company of University of Phoenix, freed up several rows of power-consuming devices in the data center by implementing Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches.
4. Green the Desktop
Yet another green IT strategy is replacing desktop PCs with more energy-efficient thin clients. Each person’s applications and data reside not on the desktop, but on a cloud platform in the data center, like a Cisco Unified Computing System™. “You just turn on your thin client and your desktop appears just like it would if the information were stored on your PC,” says Tuohy. This arrangement is called a virtual desktop infrastructure, or VDI. “Not only do VDIs reduce energy use, they also lower capital costs because thin clients cost less than PCs and don’t have to be replaced as often,” says Tuohy.
Claremont McKenna College in Southern California uses a Cisco Unified Computing System to host a VDI for the Joint Sciences Department, which also serves other colleges in the Claremont University Consortium. During classes or research sessions, students check out specialized scientific software, returning it to the shared pool when finished.
Calculate the Savings
Cisco has developed Green Business Value Calculators that colleges and universities can use to project economic as well as environmental benefits of several technologies. The projected green benefits have been validated by Domani, a leading environmental consulting firm, and are consistent with customers’ real-life experience.
To use the calculator, visit: www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/ppt/Cisco_IBSG_Green_Business_Value_Calculators.ppt
To read about Cisco® Connected Learning solutions for higher education, visit: http://campustechnology.com/microsites/cisco-connected-learning_10a/home.aspx
To read about Cisco solutions for environmental sustainability, visit: www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/environment/
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