Defined as the practice of sustainable production, management and disposal of electronic equipment, as well as saving energy, Green IT also brings reduction in energy costs. This practice needs to be initiated in sustainable projects and the structuring of the various products needs to be analyzed with new methods or materials that reduce the dangers of contamination for man and nature.

In cloud computing, data storage is done on dedicated servers of companies that perform the service and can be accessed in several places in the world. There is less concern with the hardware part of the machine and air conditioners for the storage of equipment.

When the focus is on electronics, it is necessary for the company to manage its use of IT equipment. Both the purchase and lease of equipment consume less electricity, as well as the use of recycled paper and reduced levels of printing. And of course, that may be disposed smartly.

Green IT can be defined in three areas: Tactical, Strategic and Deep IT. The IT Tactical represents the reduction of energy consumption by turning off the monitors which are not in use. Strategically it changes the computers, for example, in producing a better maintenance of equipment and thus, an estimated economy.

Deep IT is based, for example, in actions that range from planning a data center to the movement of employees and consumption of alternative energy like solar, and the use of server virtualization, management of power consumption generated by cooling equipment.

The segment of grid computing, virtualization and cloud computing meet the newest demands of modern environments called “Green IT” or “environmentally friendly data center“. This factor is one of the strengths that highlight your company and raises its level in a matter of sustainability.

The data center market is boiling. The projects in this area live a moment of expansion, both in corporate and commercial sector to meet the demands of IT, which increased with the growing economy, and also to prepare the ground for cloud. With these requirements, companies are beginning to look  at a new alternative for the construction of data centers. Sites are boxed in container, which follow the business where they are in parking facilities, in the sea, dams or in the mountains.

Called Container Data Center (CDC), these new types of data centers are not intended to replace the traditional masonry buildings. They are more to meet specific business needs.

These projects have their targeted audience who need to rapidly expand infrastructure, public companies, oil drilling, civil construction, and mining companies that hold temporary events such as those promoting concerts and sports competitions, among other businesses .

The main advantage of this model, according to the evaluation of consultants in the industry, is the possibility of rapid assembly and disassembly of data centers, since they are mobile and can be transported by truck to anywhere.

Advantages of the data center container

One of the advantages of the CDC is the speed of installation. A data center container can be installed within 60 days. And more importantly, this type of solution reduces energy consumption by over 40% and meets all safety requirements. The CDC are modular and can grow with the needs of customers, adding new boxes, as pieces of lego game, to provide non-stop IT.

The mobile data center can be transported and installed up on the mountain.  Even with these advantages, I believe that the CDC will not replace the data centers of bricks, because this solution is an alternative for situations in which companies cannot put the infrastructure in conventional buildings.

There is no doubt that the cloud computing services has become a delivery mechanism for increasingly popular IT tasks that are often complicated and time consuming. To help companies that are ready to migrate to the cloud-based services and also those that are beginning to consider this possibility, here are some tips for a safe transition. Following the suggestions, corporations ensure simplicity, economy and efficiency that the cloud has to offer.

1. Bigger is not always better: The cloud service providers are trying to find its position in an increasingly competitive segment. The reputation of the provider and the length of experience in the cloud matters more than size.

2. Understand your security needs: There is much speculation about security in the cloud, but there is little difference between the confidence that companies have in their service provider of Internet and other technology providers. Keeping that in mind, we can say that the demand and expectations of security of each organization are different. Therefore, it is important to understand how the supplier can meet those needs. Check references on the service provider and analyze cases similar to yours.

3. Learn the basics of data backup: Get to know how the cloud services provider backs up data and in the worst scenario, what if he gives up activities or if your company wanted to migrate your data to another provider. Seek to know more about the reputation of the provider’s storage resources, the number and location of data centers, infrastructure and redundancy.

4. Make sure you have good SLAs (Service Level Agreements): Certifications segment depicting a moment in time and do not necessarily indicate good performance. The best way to ensure good service is through Service Level Agreements – SLAs – with clear language. Look for vendors to disclose their financial performance and use values for cases of clear Service Level under the contract.

5. Evaluate standards of customer service: The best customer service departments for cloud services have experts available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Make sure that the customer service provided by the chosen supplier is able to meet the needs of your organization.

6. Test the service: The main advantages of SaaS ( Software as a Service) option is to offer a free trial, easy to implement. Most suppliers offer to those who wish to evaluate the services. Start with a free version that once evaluated and approved, can be expanded to include sensitive data and other mission-critical systems.

With the above tips, we hope that companies start to migrate to the cloud with more security and less of doubt, since the subject is still complex and brings a whole host of issues within organizations. The great challenge for companies now is to think about taking the first step toward the cloud.

And that is the first of many!