CIO

University of Florida PHD offers new energy-saving Ethernet idea

At Interop Las Vegas 2008, I talked with the Ethernet Alliance and their University White Paper Challenge Winner Francisco Blanquicet, a PHD student at University of South Florida. In this video he explains the topic of his winning white paper, “PAUSE Power Cycle: A new backwards compatible method to reduce energy of Ethernet switches.” (Sorry about the quality… I’m working on it.)

Green networking: Save money and energy while you help the planet

One half gallon of my favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream, with chunks of fair trade dark chocolate and no fake green coloring, from the family-owned organic dairy farm in my town: $7.99. Dolce & Gabbana bamboo fiber blouse that looks so cute on Cameron Diaz in Us magazine: $260. SkyStream 3.7 residential windmill, producing 400 KWh of electricity per month with 12 mph average winds: $12,000. Knowing that you’re doing all you can to make ecologically responsible decisions and saving the planet from incinerating to dust before your great-grandchildren are born: Priceless.

I confess I am a tree-hugger at heart. And while I would like to get completely behind the green movement and drive a hybrid car, renovate my house in sustainable materials, and buy only organic food, I just can’t afford it. Unfortunately, “green” has become big business for some companies selling cosmetics, clothing, and food — and blindly buying those products without needing them harms the environment more than it helps. So I pick and choose things I think are most important when it comes to spending money and try to concentrate on conservation and savings instead. I recycle everything I can, try to minimize driving, and wear a lot of sweaters so I can keep the heat low.

In IT, the same principles apply. Vendors are pushing green initiatives down your throat for the sake of having green initiatives. You need to consider the options carefully, so the editors at SearchNetworking.com have produced a special report on green networking to help you do just that.

You’ll find several articles on saving money and power, including How green is my network? — A look at the cost-savings benefit of green IT, in which columnist Rich Ptak takes a very pragmatic (and a tad anti-tree-hugger, IMHO) approach to analyzing your equipment and usage and finding ways to make smart upgrades that can save dollars in the long run, depending on your specific needs. You’ll also find several great articles detailing which types of routers, switches and PoE equipment use the least amount of energy.

In addition, the report features sections on selling green IT to your executive team and the benefits of unified communications for green initiatives. To get a running start on going green in your own network, you can also download the pdf Craft a green IT action plan.

And don’t miss the podcast on recycling and energy saving techniques for mobile devices, which includes tips on saving battery life as well as how to recycle old devices and computer equipment, a perennial issue in IT.

So celebrate Earth Day today by visiting the green networking special report. We hope it will put you on the path to saving money, saving energy and saving the planet, all at once.

Don’t let your job get shipped away

Despite the occasional peril of lost connectivity, it’s a fact of modern business that more and more services are being sent overseas. Once primarily for application development and call centers, outsourcers are enroaching increasingly closer and closer to the heart of businesses. Over on IT Knowledge Exchange, several SMB-types discussed outsourcing their entire IT departments.

Fortunately, there are some things savvy networking pros can do to make themselves “strategic assets” (HR speak for “not outsourcable”) rather than “commodity services” (that’s a bad thing). We’ve got a more in-depth look up at SearchNetworking, but here are some tips boiled down from my conversations with IT veterans, analysts, and even an outsourcing company’s HR specialist:

• Those with purchasing power are less likely to be cut. If you’re buying something, it’s a good sign you understand the business needs on a higher level, and that you know how to …
• Think strategically. If what you’re absolutely great at is properly configuring routers or securing a VPN, guess what? So are a lot of other people, and often times they can do it halfway around the world just as easily. What they can’t do is look around your business and suggest ways to cut down on communication problems between sales and the warehouse.
• If you specialize, make sure your field is not going away anytime soon, and define your specialization broadly enough to be flexible in case the winds change. That means taking a hard look at the theory behind, for example, VoIP management techniques rather than simply learning how to install and maintain one brand of bandwidth management appliances.
• Don’t rely on certifications alone. As the HR specialist told us, it’s just as easy to get certified in India as it is in the States, and labor is still cheaper there.
• Don’t forget soft skills. Part of being an effective networking strategist means working with — and learning from — others outside of your domain. Leadership and communications courses can help you not only freshen up your resume, but also work more effectively outside of IT.

There’s also some really great advice in in the ITKE forums, and if you’ve got a question about what to do with your own career, you might try asking there: Generally the members are more than willing to help out, and many of SearchNetworking’s resident expert tipsters are active participants. Some career-oriented posts I came across:

• How do I become an ICT professional?
• How do I get into IT with my administrative background?
• Certification in Business and Personal communications
• Advice on advancing a networking career