This is part two of a two-part series about virtualization. In the first post, we attempted to explain what virtualization is and why you should care about it. Here, we explain more about server virtualization and share our own positive experience with it.

Server Virtualization

If your organization has multiple server computers that supply your computer system with email, Internet, print services, databases, data back-ups, password authentications, a place to store documents, and more, then server virtualization is something that can save your organization money and energy. Virtualization software can cut server power consumption by up to 80%.

Server virtualization is software that allows you to optimize a single server computer so that it is able to do the work of multiple servers. Did you know that most servers are only utilized between 10 and 15%?

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Don't know what virtualization software is or even care? Well, you should.

If you aren't using it directly in your office, I bet you are using it through one of your software providers without even knowing it. Is your website or email hosted somewhere outside your office? Do you use Salesforce.com or an online donor database? I bet they are using virtualization. Most large services who host software like the ones I mentioned above should be using this technology if they aren't already.

I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for buying green products. Not just refurbished and EPEAT IT equipment, but recycled content paper products, things made with post -onsumer materials, fair trade or organic clothing and food, energy efficient gizmos, non-toxic cleaning supplies, and more. One of the problems with being a green consumer is that while such products may be non-toxic or sustainably produced, do they actually work?

I got excited when I found about SmartPlanet Tech News, which was a free online news service that also delivered product reviews of new green products and services "in the round," scoring them on quality, value, ethics and eco-impact. The site had a great section on green IT.

Imagine my surprise when I went back to the site recently to find this great online service to have morphed in to a CBS Interactive website now called simply SmartPlanet.

In our weekly GreenTech columns, we've been closely following the career of Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy and more recently special advisor for green jobs at the White House Council for Environmental Quality in the Obama administration. It's no news to the environmental community that on Sunday, September 6th, Jones resigned as White House special advisor after only six months on the job, in what many are calling a forced resignation. The New York Times reported that the resignation was a "victory for Republicans and the Obama administration's conservative critics" and that the mounting criticism of him was based largely on remarks Jones had made before his White House appointment, including particularly derogatory statements about Republicans as well as Jones' signature on a 2004 letter suggesting that former President George W. Bush might have knowingly allowed the September 11 attacks.

The environmentalist response to the resignation has been very interesting and varied. Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope's "lynch mob" piece is among the more strongly worded statements. Bill McKibben's statement on 350.org is more measured:

Youth climate activists the world over have been wearing green hard hats the last few years largely because of Van's example. And no one spent more time trying to bridge the gaps between races and classes than Van, addressing one of the environmental movement's most glaring weaknesses. The reason the right wanted to bring him down was that he was effective. And if there's even a glimmer of good news here, it's that he'll be freed from the restrictions of high officialdom to bring all his eloquence and all his energy to bear on the challenges we face. We're very proud to be among his many many colleagues.

Whenever I've gone to tech conferences, it's always the engineers in the crowd who stand up and ask why on earth we can't all agree to standardize the plugs and inputs on electronic devices. Most of us nod in agreement, but invariably someone observes that it's simply the price we pay for having a free market industry.

Hold the phone! The mobile phone industry has decided to do something about this. Mobile phone companies including Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson (which together account for over 80% of the mobile phone market worldwide) have struck a deal with the European Union to introduce the one-size-fits-all or universal mobile phone charger by January 2010.

I think most people have heard of the One Laptop Per Child little XO portable computers that are designed for the rural developing world, but I suspect far fewer people have heard of the great work that the San Francisco, California based nonprofit, Inveneo, is doing in this area of nonprofit computing.

Inveneo has developed an array of IT devices for use in developing countries in areas with poor or non-existent electrical grids. They do this admirable digital inclusion work in an intelligent and very missionary way. And it just so happens that all their devices are green, low-wattage equipment. They are run off of 12-volt DC batteries, solar panels, or bicycle generators.

A bit over a year ago, we talked about U.S.-based EPEAT, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, which is a non-commercial program that rates how environmentally friendly new IT equipment is according to three tiers of environmental performance which they mark with bronze, silver, and gold.

EPEAT ranks computers, monitors, and (soon) TVs based on 23 required attributes and 28 additional optional attributes. The criteria range from energy use to elimination of hazardous materials. EPEAT is essentially the only green IT product accreditation program in the world. The big green IT news this week is that the program has now expanded to 40 countries (PDF) worldwide including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the 27 countries of the European Union.

TechSoup is hosting upcoming 6th Annual International Computer Refurbisher Summit (ICRS 2009). This year's summit will be held in Miami Beach, Florida on October 14 and 15 with the theme of "Prospering in Recessionary Times."

ICRS is one of the lesser-known events in the electronics recycling industry. Most electronics recyclers do some amount of whole-system or parts reclamation, but this is the place where people who focus on electronics reuse get together to talk shop every year. It's the best opportunity to meet people and form relationships with refurbishers and asset recovery managers, coordinate efforts, and to get some clarity on issues from a reuse perspective.

In June of 2008, we posted information about US consumer electronics retailer, Best Buy, starting a pilot program to collect discarded consumer electronic devices at some of their locations in the United States.

As of February 2009, stores in all 50 states now offer this ecycling program, which is now called Greener Together. This is a great voluntary program for the United States' largest consumer electronics retailer because it takes most discarded electronic devices at no cost, with one exception which I'll explain below. There is no legal obligation for the company to do this nationally, and it's simply a very convenient for most people to have one place where they can take any used electronic items they don't want any more. Kudos to Best Buy for taking their pilot program nationwide.

One quibble I have with the program is that doesn't seem to address or promote electronics reuse except for "gently used"equipment that applies to their Tech Trade-In program. By contrast the Dell/Goodwill Reconnect partnership offers a similar service, provides donation tax credits, and does have reuse built in to it. The downside is that the Reconnect program hasn't rolled out to all Goodwill stores in the U.S. yet.

Best Buy's Greener Together program has a $10 charge for accepting TVs 32 inches and under, computer monitors, and laptops, however, in exchange they give you a $10 Best Buy gift card. You can bring in up to two items a day, per household. They accept most unwanted electronic devices no matter where they were purchased.

TechSoup has been working on the strangely difficult problem of increasing the volume of five-year-old-and-newer computers donated to our Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI) program and also to other refurbishers that supply IT equipment to schools, nonprofits, and low-income families for some years now. In RCI we accept bulk donations of 100 or more computers at a time.

When we published our Islands in the Wastestream report on the state of the noncommercial computer refurbishing field in 2004, one of our essential findings was that a lack of steady donated computer supplies is one of the primary inhibitors to the computer reuse field. It was true then and it's still true now, especially in recessionary times when companies are either extending the leases on their IT equipment or simply holding on to the computers they have beyond the normal three to four years they ordinarily keep them.