Volume 5, No. 4, April 2014 Journal of Global Research in Computer Science RESEARCH PAPER Available Online at www.jgrcs.info © JGRCS 2010, All Rights Reserved 5 IMPACT OF GREEN COMPUTING IN IT INDUSTRY TO MAKE ECO FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT Shalabh Agarwal *1 , Arnab Datta 2 , Asoke Nath 3 * 1 Department of Computer Science, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, West Bengal, India shalabh@sxccal.edu 1 2 Department of Computer Science, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, West Bengal, India arnabdatta110393@gmail.com 2 3 Department of Computer Science, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, West Bengal, India asokejoy1@gmail.com 3 Abstract: The tremendous explorations in Information Technologies and the range of new equipment being developed every passing day, 21 st century can aptly be labelled as the ―Century of Gadgets and Gizmos‖. The term Green Computing refers to the practice of using energy wisely and efficiently, causing negligible degradation to environmental resources and parameters also maintaining feasibility on the other hand. It is basically a balanced and sustainable approach towards the achievement of a healthy and clean environment without compromising the needs and necessities of technology for the present generation. Thus taking up a more holistic and careful approach to making our IT-industry greener definitely falls in our list of responsibilities in creating a more healthier, safer and clean environment. This also revolves on spreading awareness and ensuring people to take their necessary individual steps towards achieving the goals of Green Computing. In the present paper the authors have made a systematic study of several strategies, approaches and practices of green and energy efficient computing, in context to the growth and impact of the IT industry on environment in the recent years. The plans towards a greener IT-industry should include new electronic products and services with optimum efficiency and all possible options solutions towards energy savings. Keywords [Green Computing, Green IT, Energy efficient computing] INTRODUCTION Green Computing refers to the art of utilizing computing resources in an efficient and eco-friendly, sustainable manner. In recent years, this practice has drawn serious attention both from Educational Institutions, environmental organizations and the corporate and business sector. In the current trend, ―going green‖ has become an agenda for the IT industries in terms of public relations and reduced costs. Green computing focuses on the triple bottom line of economic viability, social responsibility, and environmental impact. It differs from traditional business practices that focus mainly on economic viability of a computing solution. The term ―Green Computing‖ came into existence after the ―Energy Star Programme‖ by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in the year 1992. It was a voluntary labeling program, designed to promote energy-efficiency in hardware of all kinds. A similar program was also conducted in Europe and Asia later on. The manufacturing industries contribute directly to pollution, whereas the IT industries have a hidden impact on environmental pollution caused by unconscious consumption of power and inefficient use of hardware devices. Hence, the main motto of green computing is to explore the reasons and find the solution of this indirect adverse effect on environment. In a world where business is transacted 24x7 across every possible channel available, companies and organizations need to collect, store, track and analyze enormous volumes of data—everything from click stream data and event logs to mobile call records and more. But this all comes with a cost to both businesses and the environment. Data warehouses and the sprawling data centres that house them use up a huge amount of power, both to run huge number of servers and to cool them. IT industry has begun to address energy consumption in the data center through a variety of approaches including the use of more efficient cooling systems, virtualization, blade servers and storage area networks. But a basic problem persists in the path of achieving sustainability. As data volumes explode, traditional, appliance-centric data warehousing approaches can only continue to throw more hardware at the problem, which can negate the green-gains attained previously through the modern-trending approaches. [1] GROWTH AND IMPACT OF IT ON ENVIRONMENT When PC visionaries Bill Gates and Steve Jobs set out to put a computer on every desktop back in the 1980s, no one could have imagined the millions of computers that drive billions of business, consumer and personal internet transactions across a global network each day. With an