smart(TM) Commuting, Smart Computing

By Phil Spitze on July 1, 2009 9:50 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
 

smart(TM) Commuting, Smart Computing
By Phil Spitze, Network Manager

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A couple of weeks ago I accepted delivery of my 2009 smart fortwo Passion (also known on the street as the 'Smartcar'.) It was an exciting day and after a couple of weeks commuting back and forth to the office, I'm enjoying the benefits of a small (near micro) car: extreme parking capabilities - no sidewalk is too small! Great gas mileage - I'm averaging just over 40 MPG; Overall good feelings of eco-friendliness - I'm a long-time supporter of greener living and working and am proud to be making another tangible contribution. I am not the first green commuter here at Fuel, however. My co-worker Julie (a frequest poster to this blog) often commutes to work on her 50cc scooter. I can only guess at her MPGs, but I'm sure they're quite high. Congrats to green commuters everywhere!

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It just so happens that this summer also marks the start of a major virtualization project here at Fuel, where we will be converting most of our physical servers to virtual machines. We'll be moving from 20 physical servers to just 5, seeing an immediate green impact of 75% less power use in our data center.  Though a little bit harder to measure, we will also reduce our impact on cooling resources as only 5 servers will be generating heat. Another reduction will be in e-waste, as we'll have less machines for which to maintain and stock parts. (Once we've wiped our old servers clean, we'll donate them to a local recycling/refurbishing group that will repurpose the equipment to non-profits in need of server hardware.)

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Fuel has made other green improvements as well. Last year, a co-worker started an office paper recycling program and our CTO signed us up for Google Apps to enable more efficient online collaboration in place of multiple versions printed on paper. While these actions might be seen by some as fairly minor and somewhat obvious, we are proud of them nonetheless.

As with all change, the biggest hurdles to overcome are perception and culture, and many of us at Fuel will continue to fight the green fight and continue to reduce our personal and corporate footprints. We welcome your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.

Cheers!

For more green information, check out these great sites:
http://www.treehugger.com
http://www.greenissexy.org

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