Greening IT with Faronics

The media spin this past week has been extremely positive in the midst of the world's problems. Barrack Obama's inauguration combined with the Hudson River plane landing has made this the biggest positive news week since Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and declared it a "great leap for mankind." Meanwhile, Microsoft has sacked 5000 people today and there is no bottom in sight for the current economic meltdown. So where is the bright spot in the economic picture? It is green-tech and everyone is flocking toward it.

Obama is announcing his Manhattan Project for clean energy. Poker champion Doyle Brunson is seeing the new 11^th Hour movie he financed narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio doing well. The movie picks up where Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth left off. Everyone is talking about the environment and clean and green technologies as the solution to the world's problems. I'm more of a leader than a follower but if it is my turn to act as a sheep, I might as well be a green one. I don't mind as long as someone doesn't come along and steal my green wool.

This month's Network Insider has been a little slow in coming. This is because we have been intimately involved in financing an industrial project in these chaotic days. Yes, it is clean and green - veggie plastic products with zero emissions in the manufacturing processes. Then the holidays hit. But we're back. And I'm opening with a great example of a Vancouver company we have been working with that has taken a lead on greening Information Technology.

Dmitry Shesterin is Vice President of Marketing at Faronics. This privately held software company with offices in Vancouver and San Ramon (California) develops computer software for multi-user IT environments. The company employs approximately 100 people and the products are predominantly used in educational institutions, libraries, healthcare facilities, government agencies. Dmitry has taken the lead in producing this month's resource titled Insiders Guide to Greening I.T. This represents the first collaborative resource of this type for the industry. I was pleased to be able to interview Dmitry for this month's Network Insider and to share this resource with you.

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Q: Why did you create this resource?

A: Over the last year I have taken a strong interest in green business practices. After seeing how much of an effect our daily practices have on the environment, I've made it my mission to help make Faronics as green an organization as possible. Working with organizations such as Climate Savers Computing Initiative and Offsetters is going to help Faronics get there.

Even with all the information that is available today regarding green computing, I still come across people who are unaware of (or misinformed about) the benefits of reducing the impact of computers on the environment. Through various Internet forums and discussions, I found there were others who shared my views and thoughts. That's when the idea for an Insiders Guide to Greening I.T. was born. I wanted to bring together a collection of stories, blog posts, and practical advice for employees- whether they are high-level or grassroots-that could be used to start green initiatives within their companies.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish?

A: My hope is that by reading this free ebook, others will be inspired with the messages of the individual authors and will take action in their respective workplaces and homes to reduce their carbon footprints.

Q: What do you want people to do?

A: Look for ways to incorporate environmental sustainability into one's daily routines, both at home and in the office. Yes, there is a lot of greenwashing out there with products that have green claims that are dubious at best. But among these products there are the real gems that do deliver the environmental, and often financial, savings as promised. I ask that people do their part in reducing their carbon footprint by taking advantage of green solutions and practices that have a proven ability to work.

Q: Give me an example of an innovative company creating change in this area.

A: Faronics is a good example. We are actively working with Offsetters to improve our internal operations and achieve carbon neutral status in 2009. Our flagship product Deep Freeze has built in capabilities that can help reduce unnecessary energy waste and we have developed a dedicated software solution that delivers desktop computer energy management that doesn't interfere with user or IT needs. Faronics Power Save keeps computers running when users need them, accurately determines when computers are inactive so they can be powered down, and can prove its rapid return-on-investment through network-wide power consumption and savings reports.

About Dmitry Shesterin

Dmitry Shesterin is Vice President of Marketing at Faronics. After completing his Bachelor of Arts degree from Tver State University in Russia and Osnabruck University in Germany in 1998, Dmitry has chosen a marketing career path that lead him through various sales and marketing management positions in Russia, Germany and Canada with such organizations as Seiko EPSON and Siemens before joining Faronics in October 2004.