3 Ways to Conserve Energy with Business Technology

As businesses we probably pay less attention to being environmentally friendly than we should. We want to make sure that we create the optimal environment for our users and often that means a comfortable environment that’s not too hot, not too cold and has the technology and lighting that is optimal. With Earth Day behind us it’s important that we continue to explore ways that we can save energy for the environment and for the bottom line of our businesses. Check out these three ways to conserve energy with business technology:

Cloud hosting.

We had to do it. Had to bring in the cloud! But it’s true – cloud hosting is far more efficient from an energy perspective than running a local server 24/7 – and let’s face it – with so many employees working off hours and into the weekends, there’s rarely the opportunity to completely shut down your servers to save energy. Cloud servers are hosted at data centers with the data of many, many other companies. Not only are you sharing equipment with other organizations (think of it like carpooling for data), but those organizations can also invest more into the most energy efficient equipment, cooling mechanisms and other advancements that are far more efficient from an energy perspective than a small business local server would be.

Workstation power maintenance.

Regular workstation maintenance is a nightly checklist item for most IT departments at the end of the day. Patches, updates and antivirus definitions are updated when your users leave for the night. When your IT department does machine maintenance at the end of the day, they can configure workstations to power off automatically, which means that they don’t have to run all night when there is no staff actually working.

Regular refreshes.

If you remember your first computer (whether personal or business), you probably remember how clunky it was. Since the first computer, technology advancements have built smaller, more efficient computers that save energy. Every year, manufacturers work to beat their own records and create machines that are even more efficient than the year before. If your users are working on 7 year old machines, they could likely benefit form a newer, faster machine that runs more efficiently and uses less energy.

Don’t let Earth Day have come and gone without making efforts in your business to be more efficient and conserve energy. Beyond the basics of turning lights off and unplugging devices that are not being used – these energy conserving business technology tips are a great way to save money and energy in the long term, benefitting both your business and the environment.