Review of the environmental and organisational implications of cloud computing: final report.

Cloud computing – where elastic computing resources are delivered over the Internet by external service providers – is generating significant interest within HE and FE. In the cloud computing business model, organisations or individuals contract with a cloud computing service provider on a pay-per-use basis to access data centres, application software or web services from any location. This provides an elasticity of provision which the customer can scale up or down to meet demand. This form of utility computing potentially opens up a new paradigm in the provision of IT to support administrative and educational functions within HE and FE. Further, the economies of scale and increasingly energy efficient data centre technologies which underpin cloud services means that cloud solutions may also have a positive impact on carbon footprints. In response to the growing interest in cloud computing within UK HE and FE, JISC commissioned the University of Strathclyde to undertake a Review of the Environmental and Organisational Implications of Cloud Computing in Higher and Further Education [19]

A Value Stream Approach For Greening The IT Department

In this paper, we consider the application of Green Value Stream Mapping for greening the information technology functional area of organizations. We advocate the use of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) processes to consider value stream maps for both the manufacturing side of the IT department as well as its service delivery arm. In addition, we present steps to be taken by the IT department to eliminate waste in each of seven green waste areas and consider the impact of new technologies for greening the IT department

Developing efficient software solution while considering the environment

"Green" information technology has become a popular and trendy topic. Many companies are exploring methods, practices and policies to use green application development techniques. Energy consumption is a major cost of operating IT software in organizations and data centers. Hardware and software developers and manufacturers are beginning to include power saving options and strategies during project planning to reduce energy consumption and e-waste. While, software solutions are considered a valuable item in the IT project, there has been less research conducted to highlight their impact on the green technology movement. This paper focuses on the impact of developing green software solution on energy utilization and its benefits for the environment and organizations

Artificial consciousness and the consciousness-attention dissociation

Artificial Intelligence is at a turning point, with a substantial increase in projects aiming to implement sophisticated forms of human intelligence in machines. This research attempts to model specific forms of intelligence through brute-force search heuristics and also reproduce features of human perception and cognition, including emotions. Such goals have implications for artificial consciousness, with some arguing that it will be achievable once we overcome short-term engineering challenges. We believe, however, that phenomenal consciousness cannot be implemented in machines. This becomes clear when considering emotions and examining the dissociation between consciousness and attention in humans. While we may be able to program ethical behavior based on rules and machine learning, we will never be able to reproduce emotions or empathy by programming such control systems—these will be merely simulations. Arguments in favor of this claim include considerations about evolution, the neuropsychological aspects of emotions, and the dissociation between attention and consciousness found in humans. Ultimately, we are far from achieving artificial consciousness

Greening IT : How greener it can form a solid base for a low-carbon society

272 p.Libro ElectrónicoInformation Technology is responsible for approximately 2% of the world's emission of greenhouse gases. The IT sector itself contributes to these greenhouse gas emissions, through its massive consumption of energy - and therefore continuously exacerbates the problem. At the same time, however, the IT industry can provide the technological solutions we need to optimise resource use, save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We call this Greening IT. This book looks into the great potential of greening society with IT - i.e. the potential of IT in transforming our societies into Low-Carbon societies. The book is the result of an internationally collaborative effort by a number of opinion leaders in the field of Greening IT. Tomado de http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8791936020The Greening of IT is a symptom of a much larger challenge for humankind - transitioning from economic childhood into maturity. Despite the emergence of large regional alliances such as the EC, humankind remains incredibly fragmented; and yet the need for global climate and energy policies is pressing. IT offers tantalizing technical solutions to our emissions and growth dilemma: it can grow greener and help with the greening of other industries. This book explores this potential.AcknowledgementsDisclosure1 Prologue2 Our Tools Will Not Save Us This Time - by Laurent Liscia3 Climate Change and the Low Carbon Society - by Irene N. Sobotta4 Why Green IT Is Hard - An Economic Perspective - by Rien Dijkstra5 Cloud Computing - by Adrian Sobotta6 Thin Client Computing - by Sean Whetstone7 Smart Grid - by Adrian Sobotta8 How IT Contributes to the Greening of the Grid - by Dr. GeorgeW. Arnold9 The Green IT Industry Ecosystem - by Ariane Rüdiger10 Out of The Box Ways IT Can Help to Preserve Nature and Reduce CO2 - by Flavio Souza11 From KPIs to the Business Case - Return on Investment on Green IT? - by Dominique C. Brack12 Computing Energy Efficiency - An Introduction - by Bianca Wirth13 A Future View: Biomimicry + Technology - by Bianca Wirth14 Greening Supply Chains - The Role of Information Technologies - by Hans Moonen15 EpilogueReferencesInde

GREENING DATA CENTRES: THE MOTIVATION, EXPECTANCY AND ABILITY DRIVERS

Data centres are the backbone of the digital economy and the widespread adoption of cloud services, business analytics and big data will continu to accelerate their demand. Because data centres consume a significant amount of energy, research efforts are needed to identify what facilitates actions to implement practices and technologies to either retrofit to or architect green data centres. This paper address this issu drawing from institutional, expectancy and motivation “ability theories and based on survey data collected from 96 data centres. The findings indicate that performance and effort expectancy form the strong order drivers and together with ability will lead to the implementation of practices and technologies that improve the energy efficiency of data centres. In addition, institutional isomorphic forces serve as first order influnces to shape expectations and trigger actions to develop skills and polices and to allocate financial resources that facilitate the implementation of greening practices. The paper further discusses a number of implications for research and practice

Drones for parcel and passenger transportation: A literature review

Delivery drones and ‘air taxis’ are currently among the most intensely discussed emerging technologies, likely to expand mobility into the ‘third dimension’ of low-level airspace. This paper presents a systematic literature review of 111 interdisciplinary publications (2013 - 03/2019). The review systematizes the current socio-technical debate on civil drones for transportation purposes allowing for a (critical) interim assessment. To guide the review process four dimensions of analysis were defined. A total of 2581 relevant quotations were subdivided into anticipated barriers (426), potential problems (1037), proposed solutions (737) and expected benefits (381). We found that the debate is characterized by predominantly technical and regulatory problems and barriers which are considered to prevent or impede the use of drones for parcel and passengers transportation. At the same time, definite economic expectations are juxtaposed with quite complex and differentiated concerns regarding societal and environmental impacts. Scrutinizing the most prevalent transportation-related promises of traffic reduction, travel time saving and environmental relief we found that there is a strong need to provide scientific evidence for the promises linked to the use of drones for transportation. We conclude that the debate on drones for transportation needs further qualification, emphasizing societal benefits and public involvement more strongly.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Adoption of Green IT in the university environment: systematic review of sustainability practices in educational institutions

Introduction: Universities are concerned and aware about climate change and sustainable issues in Information Technology (IT). Green IT is the practice of designing, manufacturing, using and disposing of computers, servers and associated equipment with minimal or no impact to the environment. In order to investigate how university handles this, the objective of this article is to research   implementation of Green IT study cases in the university environment and to report the practices and results of this application. Method: To develop this work a systematic review was carried out, a research protocol was defined based on the last 10 years of scientific publications in the ACM, IEEE and Scopus periodical databases. The process was done in two stages comprehending the search in journals databases and the systematic analysis of the articles chosen that were related to the research topic. The findings of this study are case studies, on how to start a project, technologies, difficulties and benefits of the implementation. The research was limited to the qualitative documental analysis of scientific articles. Results: As a result, nine articles were identified which reported application practices  of Green IT in universities, including studies from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Conclusions: The study contributed with an overview about IT sustainability practices and helped to understand the universe of Green IT applied to universities.Introdução: as universidades estão preocupadas e cientes das mudanças climáticas e questões de sustentabilidade em Tecnologia da Informação (TI). TI Verde é a prática de projetar, fabricar, usar e descartar computadores, servidores e equipamentos associados com o mínimo ou nenhum impacto no meio ambiente. Objetivo: o objetivo deste artigo é examinar a implementação de casos de estudo de TI Verde no ambiente universitário a partir das práticas e resultados relatados em artigos científicos para ter um melhor entendimento de como as universidades estão lidando com estes. problemas. Metodologia: para o desenvolvimento deste trabalho, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática e definido um protocolo de pesquisa com base nas publicações científicas nas bases de dados de periódicos ACM, IEEE e Scopus nos últimos dez anos. O processo foi realizado em duas etapas de compreensão da busca nas bases de dados de periódicos e da análise sistemática dos artigos escolhidos relacionados ao tema da pesquisa. Resultados: foram identificados nove artigos da África, América, Ásia, Europa e Oceania, que relataram a prática de aplicação de TI Verde em universidades. Por meio dos casos estudados, discute-se como iniciar um projeto, tecnologias e dificuldades e benefícios da implementação dos mesmos. Conclusões: este estudo apresenta uma visão geral de algumas práticas de sustentabilidade em TI, que ajudam a compreender o universo da TI Verde aplicada às universidades. A pesquisa se limita à análise documental qualitativa de artigos científicos

Assessing Green Information Technology/ System capabilities and practices within a University context

The IT industry has responded to the call for change, with the looming climate change agenda, through greening of technology (Green IT) and finding ways to green by technology (Green IS). The extant literature on Green IT/IS has also developed to recognise the role IT/IS can play in supporting organisation’s environmental sustainability objectives. There is a demand for research and case studies to inform the development of best practices and identification of innovative measures to combat climate change through IT/IS. Universities represent organisations that are large technology users. This this case study analyses the Green IT/IS practices of a University through two academic frameworks: G-readiness and Eco-goals. To support the demand for information in this area, this case study seeks to understand the Green IT/IS practices and capabilities of a University through the G-readiness goals and align these to eco-goals. Through this exploration a maturity benchmark is established and recommendations provided to enhance Green IT/IS activities