Let's Get Compliant

Monday, January 01, 2007

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Just because everything looks rosy in IT doesn't mean there are no thorns. Take, for instance, the mobility and gadgets revolution. Market is flooded with so many smartphones, notebooks, gadgets, plasma displays, etc. Their manufactureres are making huge profits, their shipments are growing, lots of purchasing is happening, the economy's booming, and everyone's happy. So where are the thorns? We're not feeling them directly, but they're very much there, and affecting our environment. The manufacturing of these devices emits huge amounts of CO2 and other harmful gases into the atmosphere. Not only that, but these devices also contain a lot of harmful substances like Lead, Cadmium and Mercury. Every time a company boasts of its shipments hitting an ever high number, the emissions are also hitting all time highs, thereby increasing global warming.

Anil Chopra, Executive Editor

This doesn't mean nothing is happening to protect the environment. There are several new environment friendly standards and initiatives that are hogging the limelight. RoHS or restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment is one such directive for the EU market. It bans products that have more than agreed levels of hazardous substances. Lots of electronics equipment manufacturers, have taken heed and introduced RoHS compliant products in the market. Countries like Japan have enforced restrictions on emission levels for these manufacturers. Similarly, lots of IT equipment manufacturers are being forced through directives to make their products more energy efficient. Many industries in India are also following various compliance standards.

If industries can follow standards, why not IT setups? Everytime we need a new app, up comes a new server for it. Everytime a new security threat emerges, up comes another security appliance. Everytime data increases, up comes another storage device for it. While it may solve one immediate problem, it causes lots more in the long run. For one, more devices mean more power consumption, and a higher electricity bill. This bill isn't just for the power consumed by servers, but also for cooling the heat they generate. All equipment may not be used all the time, it still has to be kept powered up always, resulting in wastage of resources. More equipment also means more complexity, thus, higher manpower costs. It also results in higher chances of equipment failure, and if (God forbid!) the equipment does fail, you suffer from downtime.

It's time we started focusing at our existing IT equipment and utilizing it more efficiently. A lot of problems can be resolved by creating and enforcing compliance policies. We saw some action happening towards compliance last year, and hope that the wave will continue throughout this year. So here's wishing you a very happy and a more compliant new year!

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