Cebit 2008: Green and Cheap – Round Table Discussion in Hanover
Environmental protection and cost savings are not mutually exclusive. The hype topic Green IT was the subject of a press conference on Monday by CeBIT organizers Messe AG with representatives of various companies and a spokesperson for the global Climate Savers Initiative.
During its service life, a server consumes electricity worth as much as the server’s purchasing price; saving power not only cuts costs, it is also environmentally friendly – especially if you consider that the CO2 emission by the IT industry is about two percent and thus on a partition with CO2 emission caused by air traffic.
This is why this year’s CeBIT motto is Green IT.
Low-energy devices are one approach to greener IT. Their potential becomes apparent when you consider that about a billion people world wide use PCs, but only a few use efficient power management or avoid unnecessary standby operations.
Saving power is just one aspect. The WWF representative, Dr. Bernhard Bauske, pointed out that the next big challenge will be to consider a device’s total life cycle, from sourcing of raw materials and supplier’s operations, through production and production deployment, to disposal. Taking the ecological footprint into consideration, people would have to ask themselves if they really need to bin their cellphones every 18 months, or if a modular design and upgrades might help to improve environmental friendliness.
A Green IT Village at CeBIT demonstrates what offices and datacenters can achieve today. Virtualization releases enormous potential at the datacenter by consolidating up to ten servers on a single physical system. Each of the systems would consume US$ 700 to 800 worth of electricity a year. But modern office technology can drastically reduce power consumption. Even bigger savings can be made by avoiding business trips and using video conferencing. The CO2 footprint of a single transatlantic flight is equivalent to 80 teleconferencing sessions.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Akamai Will Host kernel.org
The organization dedicated to cloud-based solutions has agreed to host kernel.org to deliver long-term stability for the development team.
-
Linux Kernel 6.14 Released
The latest Linux kernel has arrived with extra Rust support and more.
-
EndeavorOS Mercury Neo Available
A new release from the EndeavorOS team ships with Plasma 6.3 and other goodies.
-
Fedora 42 Beta Has Arrived
The Fedora Project has announced the availability of the first beta release for version 42 of the open-source distribution.
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.