Green IT Infrastructures “LEED” to Savings

Posted on Coast to Coast Computer Product Website

September 17, 2013 by rnorton

 If you go to any college campus and mention the words “LEED Certification” to Computer Science and Engineering students, they will be able to give you a detailed explanation of the importance of green technology on both physical and IT-based infrastructures. The green movement is not a fad that is going to fade out in a few years; it is here to stay, and server virtualization can play a huge part in the reduction of energy use and costs.
“LEED” stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and is essential to a government designed point system to calculate a building’s environmental footprint ranking, from Certified, to Silver, to Gold, to Platinum.
The University of Iowa was recently awarded a Platinum ranking, the highest LEED Certification that can be offered, for their Information Technology Facility. “Data centers are among the most energy-intensive facilities you’ll find on a campus,” University of Iowa President Sally Mason bragged. “To build ours to LEED Platinum standards speaks volumes about the University’s commitment to energy conservation and sustainability.”
Granted, the University of Iowa spent over 30 million dollars to achieve such a high LEED certification, but doing something as simple as utilizing more energy efficient virtual servers can make a huge difference in your energy costs.
Take a moment to imagine a room filled with 30 hot, inefficient physical servers that are limited to using around 20% of their potential space; imagine the heating and cooling costs to keep all of those servers at an average running temperature of 68 degrees. Now, imagine a room with 8 virtual servers that are physically the same size handling the same workload. This is a perfect example of how energy efficient virtual servers are quite literally the future of IT and the green movement.
In IBM’s “Framework for Growth and Efficiency” article, the importance of server virtualization is mapped out very clearly: “Not only does [virtualization] improve the usage of existing resources, save storage space, and increase energy efficiency, but it also makes systems more responsive, simpler to manage and easier to back up, with less downtime and increased overall efficiency.”
To have a system that is both energy efficient and easier to manage is a dream that many CIO’s share. The benefits of such a system in terms of cost savings are colossal.
Virtualization and other efficient technologies are the future, and we are a company focused on tomorrow as much as we are focused on today.
Sources
IBM Green Perspectives – http://www-304.ibm.com/businesscenter/cpe/html0/195802.html
LEED Certification Explanation – http://blueberrypdx.com/leed-certification.htm
Iowa University LEED Platinum Ranking – http://its.uiowa.edu/news/platinum-record-information-technology-facility-ui%E2%80%99s-first-building-top-leed-certification

Print as a Service

Posted on Coast to Coast Computer Products Website 

 August 5, 2013 by rnorton

Print as a Service: Saving your Company One Document at a Time
When surveyed, 54% of organizations had no idea what the cost of their document environment was at the time. 33% of businesses could only give a rough guess. With those figures combined, this shows that only 13% of organizations are aware of what kind of impact their printing environment is making on their company. Where do you stand in that data? According to a recent infographic by Xerox, the impact of implementing Print as a Service into your business is substantial. Through both direct print costs and hidden print costs, there can be substantial cost savings to having a proper print management solution in place. Let’s take a deep dive into some of the hidden costs associated with printing and the stats around them (all of the stats below are based on an organization with 750 employees):

1. Organization Productivity: The average worker spends 8.8 hours per week searching for information. They will make 19 copies of every document, and lose 1 in every 20 documents printed. This amounts to re-prints and additional time spent on administrative tasks.
2. IT service desk: A printing fleet for a firm of 750 employees is responsible for approximately 1 in 4 support calls. That’s 40% of all calls! This also equates to approximately 3,700 hours of IT support and 33,000 kilowatt hours of electricity.
3. Storage/Footprint: Most firms have a ratio of 2.2 printers to every one employee. The optimal rate should be more along the lines of ten employees for every one printer.
4. Environmental Sustainability: By managing the number of documents that are printed, you will be seeing a significant impact on your environmental footprint. For example, printing expenses take up 85.73 tons of carbon emissions when not managed. With print management you can reduce carbon emissions by up to 60%.
5. Procurement and Administration: According to Xerox, 1-3% or your organization revenue is spent on print management. MPS programs can reduce hard costs by 30% and therefore see a cost savings of $1,000,000. What could you do with that kind of a savings?

With the lack of a universal managed print solution, you could be throwing away your budget without knowing it. Learn how you can spend more time focusing on true strategic initiatives and less time on cumbersome and outdated print management issues. Contact us to learn more.
sources:
http://www.konicaminolta.com.au/industryreport/KM_MPS_FactsAboutPrintingWithoutMPS_CostEfficiency_enlarge.jpg
http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/uncovering-hidden-print-costs_502911b090c94.jpg
http://techsource.datacom.com.au/TechKnowledge/bid/177734/Infographic-Costs-of-Print-Before-and-After-Implementing-Managed-Print-Services

Are compatible toner cartridges eco-friendly? How can I recycle my cartridges?

Posted on Coast to Coast Computer Products Webisite

 May 21, 2012 by rnorton

Q: Are compatible toner cartridges eco-friendly? How can I recycle my cartridges?
A: Each year, over 375 million empty ink and toner cartridges are thrown away and end up in our landfills. 375 million! Put into perspective, that’s over 1,000,000 cartridges per day or 11 cartridges per second. If you placed 375 million cartridges end-to-end, it would travel around the earth, three times!
These days, most of us are becoming more conscious about environmental concerns and more mindful about what we throw out. Recycling is being taken to an entirely different level; most products now display, “reusable, biodegradable or made from recycled materials,” prominently on the labels and push the green theory in all their marketing efforts; toner cartridges are no different.
When recycled toner cartridges were first introduced, a hole was drilled in the cartridge and the toner was refilled. No one paid attention to the condition of the cartridge or thought about the long-term effects this technique would produce. Due to constant leaks that eventually damaged the printer, recycled cartridges became negatively branded. Since then, strict standards were put in place and now the quality is generally equal to if not better than a new cartridge.  By using one recycled or compatible cartridge, you save 3.5 quarts of oil and remove 2.5 pounds of metal and plastic from entering our landfills. Toner cartridge usage is at an alarming rate of 12% increase per year, 82,031,250 gallons of oil could be saved this year if one out of every four cartridges used is compatible!
Most manufacturers have a recycling program that allows you to save money; make sure to inquire about it before you add to our limited landfills. Remember, Earth is all we have; help us preserve it for future generations with every printed page.

Question and Answer Forum: Q 2

Posted on April 2, 2012 by rnorton

Welcome back to our Question and Answer Forum! We hope you find this information insightful and helpful when making future purchasing decisions.
Q: Will using compatible parts void my current OEM warranty?
A: The simple answer is, “no”; but, to better understand the reasons behind this response, let’s take a look at why.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States abides by certain laws which prohibit business practices that unreasonably deprive consumers of the benefits of competition, resulting in higher prices for inferior products and services. Put into layman’s terms, the USDOJ put antitrust laws in place to protect competition. Now, more so than ever, businesses are in constant competition to attract new consumers by reducing prices and increasing the quality. This rivalry stimulates businesses to find new, innovative and more efficient methods of production, ensuring that you will always have lower prices and new and better products. As a consumer, these laws affect you, whether you realize it or not and it’s your right to know what companies can and cannot do.
There are three major Federal Antitrust Laws recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice: the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Clayton Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act. Since 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act has established a free market economy where it is illegal for any individual to control a specific market by discouraging and/or destroying competition and in an unethical manner. This Act includes agreements among competitors to rig bids, allocate customers and fix prices, which is more commonly referred to as a cartel.
The Clayton Act has been amended several times since its original enactment in 1914. Today, it prohibits mergers or acquisitions of companies where the end result would be to reduce the competition. The government has the ability to challenge any merger that is most likely to increase prices to consumers. The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits unfair methods of competition and has the authority to enforce these U.S. antitrust laws. All persons considering a merger or acquisition above a certain size must notify both the Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission. If these laws were not in place, the market would be in control and nothing could stop businesses from diminishing the quality and continuously raising their prices; the cost of items would take on a glass ceiling effect.
After reading this Cliffs Notes version of antitrust laws, the bottom line is this: it is illegal for OEM brands to require consumers only use OEM parts. Your warranty, no matter what it is for, cannot be voided for the single reason of using generic/compatible parts. These laws apply to all products and services, not only in the toner world, but everyday things such as buying food, car parts or electronics. Don’t let any warranty intimidate you, understand your rights; if you’d like more information on antitrust laws, visit theUnited States Department of Justice webpage.