Green Data Center Blog

Business Model for Used Servers

cnet newsblog has an article about when used servers cost most than new

GALWAY, Ireland--Think of the Multis Group as sort of the Antiques Roadshow of the server world.

The Galway, Ireland-based company specializes in refurbishing, and then selling, used servers. Refurbished PCs and servers are increasingly in vogue because remanufacturing represents a more environmentally efficient way to recycle old electronics than harvesting components from these old machines or melting them down for raw materials.

Multis, in fact, plans to open a 70,000-square-foot facility in Union City, Calif., later this month to refurbish and sell servers for North American customers. That marks a reversal in the usual U.S.-Ireland tech relationship.

Unlike refurbished PCs and cell phones, servers maintain a high resale value that can equal or even exceed the cost of new equipment, said Multis CEO and founder Sean Keenan. Why? Manufacturers might produce only a single server model for 18 months to two years. Corporate customers, however, often don't want to migrate to new hardware that quickly. Instead, they move at a three- to seven-year pace. As a result, they often have a need for discontinued equipment.

People should consider contacting Multis to discuss end of life for their servers and an eWaste plan as part of creating a green data center.

EPA's Cel Phone eWaste Program

The eWaste momentum continues with the EPA's partnership with AT&T Wireless, Best Buy, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Office Depot, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, Staples, and T-Mobile to recycle old cel phones. It's only a matter of time before the momentum shifts to IT equipment.

"Thanks to our Plug-In partners' efforts, recycling an old cell phone has become a quick and easy way for Americans to help protect the environment," said Susan Bodine, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "By dropping it off at a store or sending it through the mail, Americans have more recycling options today than ever before."
To kick-off the campaign, EPA released today a series of print public service announcements, "Recycle Your Cell Phone. It's An Easy Call," which highlight the convenience and environmental and social benefits of recycling a cell phone. EPA also introduced a podcast that addresses many common questions on cell phone recycling.
EPA started the campaign because many consumers still do not know where or how they can recycle their unwanted cell phones. Consequently, less than 20 percent of unwanted cell phones are recycled each year.
Recycling a cell phone offers an opportunity for everyone to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save energy, and conserve natural resources. An estimated 100 to 130 million cell phones are no longer being used, many languishing in storage. If Americans recycled 100 million phones, we could save enough upstream energy to power more than 194,000 U.S. households for a year. If consumers were able to reuse those 100 million cell phones, the environmental savings would be even greater, saving enough energy to power more than 370,000 U.S. homes each year.

EDS Eight Tips to Reduce IT Environmental Impact, lack critical tip

EDS has a press release for their eight tips to reduce the Environmental Impact of IT.  Their list is good, but they miss the need for an Energy monitoring system.  If you don't put a monitoring system in place as I talk about in my TechNet Article, you'll have no idea how effective the tips that EDS suggests are in reducing your energy costs.  EDS touts their innovative thought leadership in:

To help corporations and governments kick-off the new year right, the EDS Fellows have highlighted eight ways CIOs can extend the life of existing facilities and reduce the environmental impact of computing in 2008.

The title of EDS Fellow is awarded to the company’s most innovative thought leaders in recognition of their exceptional achievements. Each Fellow has a proven track record of creating world-class solutions for clients. In addition to their academic achievements and invention history, the 24 Fellows average 25 years of industry experience and innovative technology implementations.

One of their tips on maintenance Is one where a monitoring system can help you determine when maintenance is done poorly and actually decreases your efficiency.  There are some maintenance guides who have suggested that up to 50% of maintenance is ineffective or worse causes another failure due to error.  How many of you have taken your car in for maintenance to find there is a new problem which you think has been caused by your last maintenance call?  You can't challenge the car dealer, because you can't prove your car's state before and after the maintenance event. Also, ineffective maintenance is a waste which is not environmentallly friendly. A goal should be to do the maintance which has measureable impact to your performance.

Perform Rigorous Maintenance
The fifth option is more fundamental, but also very achievable. Data center managers can improve the efficiency of their facilities by rigorous maintenance to ensure all equipment is operating at the peak of efficiency as well as modifying layout and configuration of equipment to reduce cooling requirements. These and many more efficiency steps will increase overall data center efficiency and lower the carbon footprint.

eBay eWaste site

I found this interesting IBM reference to this eBay site on eWaste. With Intel as a leading proponent with other members like Apple, Best Buy,Circuit City, Dell, HP, Motorola, Nokia, Toshiba, UPS, USPS, Verizon.

Rethink: Fresh Ideas for a Cleaner World

eBay and fellow members of the Rethink Initiative are applying some fresh thinking to the problem of e-waste

On this site you can find information, tools and solutions that make it easy – and even profitable – to find new users for idle computers and electronics, and responsibly recycle unwanted products.

eBay and the Rethink Initiative: A natural combination
eBay recognizes that its member community of more than 157 million computer users can be a powerful force for good. Educating and enabling them to take action to reduce e-waste is good for the environment. eBay’s heritage is also about bringing buyers and sellers together – making it easy for people with idle computers and electronics to find others who can put them to good use. Putting old products to new use extends their useful life and delays their entry into the waste stream.

Faster, more advanced computers, cell phones and electronics offer endless possibilities for enrichment, learning and entertainment. But as consumers and businesses keep pace with the introduction of exciting new products, we are faced with a mounting challenge: what to do with the products we’re upgrading from.

It’s no small issue. Hundreds of millions of retired computers, cell phones and electronics sit idle or are discarded by Americans every year. We need to make smart choices about what we do with these products to help ensure a clean environment for future generations.

Rethink: A new approach
The Rethink Initiative brings together industry, government and environmental organizations to offer a fresh perspective and new answers to the challenge of e-waste.

Story of Stuff - A Green View of Stuff

Charles Earnest a Seattle Green Festival Catalyst sent an interesting link to The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard that tells

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

And, she discusses the PC obsolesnce.

There would be an interesting story for Servers in a data center in that a typical life cycle is 3 years before server hardware is osbsoleted out of a data center and possibly accelerating to even shorter times given the fast pace of energy efficiency improvements.  Jim Lynch in a technet article discusses how PCs are recycled.

One of the most amazing aspects of the Community MAR program is that it is able to supply licenses for Windows^® 2000 and Windows XP for only $5 USD. MARs supply these licenses—over 200,000 a year—on refurbished PCs to nonprofit organizations, schools, libraries, colleges, and, in the U.S., technology-access programs for low-income or disabled individuals. In this way, Community MARs reach those on the wrong side of the digital divide, providing access to educational and employment opportunities.

Shouldn't the same be available for Servers?  One statistic I've heard is that 30% of servers are sold to Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Think of how many communities could benefit from the servers powering search.  The problem is it is easy for a corporate culture to recycle servers.  It is far to easy to scrap the IT hardware to insure protection of intellectual property. All it takes is one law suit to scare the attorney's to make it a corporate policy that all IT hardware will be destroyed.

Google has a good excuse in scrapping/destroying their server hardware in that who can run anything on their non-standard hw. What is the environmental impact of Googles' server hw ewaste vs. its latest renewable energy initiative?