Green IT at Bundesverwaltungsamt

Das Bundesverwaltungsamt (BVA) ist der zentrale Dienstleister des Bundes. Das BVA, mit Hauptsitz in Köln, wurde 1960 gegründet, um andere Behörden von Tätigkeiten zu entlasten, die nicht zu deren Kernaufgaben gehören. Heute nimmt das BVA mit rund 2.400 Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern über 100 verschiedene Aufgaben für fast alle Bundesministerien und deren Geschäftsbereiche, das Bundeskanzleramt sowie zahlreiche weitere Behörden und Institutionen wahr. Online-Version im Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin (www.univerlag.tu-berlin.de) erschienen

Towards a Typology of Green IS Strategies: Insights from Case Study Research

In this paper we develop a typology of Green IS strategies and address two research questions: 1) What different types of Green IS strategies can be identified in a real-life context? 2) How do firms with distinct Green IS strategies conceive the role of Green IS within their organization? We begin with the a priori definition of Green IS strategy and conduct an exploratory case study that examines multinational companies from different industries. Across these cases, four distinct Green IS strategies are identified as a result of a within-case analysis and the emerging patterns are more closely defined using a cross-case analysis. Insights are compared with extant literature and findings are consolidated in five propositions that outline characteristics of Green IS strategies. These propositions guide the conceptualization of a typology of Green IS strategies which illustrates four generic strategies: Green IS for Efficiency, for Innovation, for Transformation, and for Credibility

Carbon Footprint of IT-Services – A comparative Study of energy consumption for Offline and Online Storage Usage

This paper focusses on the Carbon Footprint of IT-Services (CFIS) by presenting a comparative study of energy consumption for Offline and Online Storage. We therefore conducted a case study with an IT-Service provider as well as experimental simulation of customer’s ICT hardware. Based on literature review, we initially present related work and describe underlying concepts e.g. Carbon Footprint of Products, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as well as ICT energy and performance measurement. The paper proposes a methodological framework for CFIS based on the phases of LCA. Geared towards the framework we present a comparison of ICT-related energy consumptions for Offline and Online Storage as well as allocation and calculation approaches. Finally, presented carbon footprint results are discussed in terms of limitations and further research directions. The CFIS is an inevitable step to advance Green IS/IT research, since it quantifies dependencies between IT-Services, ICT energy consumption and related greenhouse gas emissions

Reference Model for Sustainable Information Systems Management: Establishing a Holistic Research Agenda

Green IT has become a well-known topic in academic journals and conferences of the IS research community. Recently, a shift from Green IT to Green IS could be observed. Green IS is a more far-reaching concept that comprises IT-enabled business and production processes as well as human skills and activities such as IT management. To proceed towards a holistic approach of sustainable IS management that addresses all dimensions of the triple bottom line, social aspects should be considered next to environmental issues. To do so, we propose a research agenda in the form of a matrix that reveals possible fields of action where a new triple bottom line thinking has to be integrated into prevalent business practices and decision-making processes. As a first step, we define the core processes of IT management as basis for our reference model: govern, source, make, and deliver. On the basis of the ten suggested fields of action, we identify a wide range of possible sustainability initiatives that allow for a more sustainable IT management in the context of an extensive literature review. The practice-oriented Reference Model for Sustainable Information Systems Management adds to the body of knowledge by consolidating and structuring established concepts. This is helpful for both practitioners and academics: practitioners get an overview of possible measures to make their organizations more sustainable and academics can draw on the classification system to identify and close research gaps in a systematic way

Data Center Green Performance Measurement: State of the Art and Open Research Challenges

Data centers (DC/DCs) are indispensable elements of information systems. The increase in information technology service demand drives their worldwide grow in number, size and energy consumption. In the light of depleting raw natural resources and climate change induced by greenhouse gases (GHG) the environmental impacts of DCs have received particular attention. This paper reviews literature to highlight major issues that contribute to DCs ecologic sustainability, and explores the state of the art of green performance indicators (GPIs) to assess DCs environmental performance, in particular the energy, GHG and resource efficiency. Afterwards, the identified GPIs are classified and clustered to construct a green performance measurement system. Furthermore, the paper generates insights in relation to the recognition and application of proposed GPIs in practice through 13 questionnaires and two expert interviews. Thus, the paper provides academics and practitioners with the body of knowledge on DC green performance measurement, and moreover formulates open research challenges

Common Patterns of Cloud Business Models

Cloud computing has been established as a significant topic in the information technology (IT) industry, especially since cloud services are expanding in the portfolios of IT service providers. New businesses emerged to provide cloud services and established businesses extend their traditional business with aspects of cloud computing. The contribution of this paper is how the cloud focus influences the IT service provider’s business model. Based on an extensive literature analysis and synthesis, the characteristics of a cloud business model are transferred into a structured research framework with 103 design features. Subsequently, cloud business models of 29 selected IT service providers are analyzed and matched with the framework. With the help of a cluster analysis, four common patterns of combination are identified for cloud business models. Finally, these patterns will be evaluated with respect to critical success factors and to issue recommendations for action

Green IT at IT-Dienstleistungszentrum Berlin

Das IT-Dienstleistungszentrum (ITDZ) Berlin ist eine Anstalt des öffentlichen Rechts (AöR) und der zentrale IT-Dienstleister für die Berliner Verwaltung. Es unterstützt die öffentlichen Institutionen des Landes Berlin mit moderner Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik (IKT) und stellt hierfür umfassende IT-Dienstleistungen bereit

Cloud Computing in Healthcare – a Literature Review on Current State of Research

Nowadays, IT resources are increasingly being used in all areas of the health sector. Cloud computing offers a promising approach to satisfy the IT needs in a favorable way. Despite numerous publications in the context of cloud computing in healthcare, there is no systematic review on current research so far. This paper addresses the gap and is aimed to identify the state of research and determine the potential areas of future research in the domain. We conduct a structured literature search based on an established framework. Through clustering of the research goals of the found papers we derive research topics including developing cloud-based applications, platforms or brokers, security and privacy mechanisms, and benefit assessments for the use of cloud computing in healthcare. We hence analyze current research results across the topics and deduce areas for future research, e.g., development, validation and improvement of proposed solutions, an evaluation framework

How Sustainable is COBIT 5? Insights from Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Survey Data

Increasing consideration of the concept of sustainability within information technology (IT) organizations and information systems (IS) management has lead to rising challenges regarding the application of existing, non- or partially sustainable IT process models. Although IT reference models exist within the scope of sustainable IS management, the integration of sustainability aspects into well-established IT reference models of IS management and IT governance still lacks theoretical foundation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the specificities of sustainability in the current COBIT 5 process reference model. Based on an argumentative-deductive analysis of COBIT 5, enriched with results of a survey, we examine the significance and specificities of sustainability in COBIT 5 from the user perspective. Our findings provide valuable insights referring to sustainability-related deficits of COBIT 5. Furthermore, this paper can serve as a theoretical basis for further research that eventually takes a sustainability-oriented adjustment of COBIT 5 into account

Predictors of Green IT Adoption: Implications from an Empirical Investigation

The increasing attention towards the environmental impact of IT (information technology) demands reorientation from IT departments. Research has outlined that the importance of Green IT is related to IT business alignment and environmental initiatives while uncertainty potentially derives from missing standards, measurements, or missing internal support for Green IT. We assume that importance and uncertainty are main determinants for Green IT adoption. These theoretical assumptions still lack empirical validation. As a contribution to the ongoing discussion of Green IT, we analyze data from 116 IT departments on the predictors of Green IT adoption using multinomial logistic regression. It is shown that the outlined assumptions prove to be statistical significant. These findings contribute to existing knowledge on Green IT and provide practical recommendations for CIOs, IT managers, environmental and sustainability managers as well as new opportunities for further research in this field