industry focus
Environmental
by: James Clifton
Green Networks: A Solution R ➲
unning a building or campus network is a major cost area of building or campus operation (voice, data, and video). We have learned that we cannot live or work without it. However most facility personnel treat it as hands off and refer it to the IT guys for “their requirements.” Isn’t it time the tail stopped wagging the dog? What if you could decease or eliminate the space requirements, the need for “freezing” HVAC (ever been in a server room?), and mitigate maintenance and vulnerabilities for business continuity and security? It is time to reel in the energy-eating monster and slay it. Are you interested in reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) by as much as 65 percent and see a decrease in power consumption by as much as 50 percent (source: Motorola POL white paper, 2010)?
28 www.augi.com
HOW CAN THIS BE? The move to providing greener buildings and attaining LEED certification has made many steps in the right direction and technology has provided the opportunity to achieve that goal. Likewise technology is one of the most important systems in our buildings (sensors, controls, software, and so on) and one of the largest consumers of power, HVAC, and space (see Figure 1). It is also one of the most vulnerable systems in day-to-day operations and largely misunderstood by most architects, construction companies, and facility management personnel. Most server rooms are full of routers, switches, panels, and miles of patch cables for voice, data, and media that stifle the imagination of most professionals and, quite frankly, scares many of them. Between the noise, cold temperatures, and apparent cable chaos, who can blame them? January 2012