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Case Study: Server virtualization drives power savings at TCS

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) holds the distinction of being the largest employer in India. It also wants the distinction of being one of the top 10 global companies in its space by 2010. It meant that the company would have to grow fast and add global facilities involving networks, datacenters, etcetera. It also needed to strengthen its existing IT infrastructure to service a large number of locations globally.

But as it gunned for a place in the top 10, Alok Kumar, VP and CIO, TCS, didn't want to ignore the company's   carbon footprint. So he set up a green IT program to improve productivity and simultaneously reduce cost and TCS' carbon footprint. "Some of these initiatives are focused toward greening the datacenter, office environments, and optimizing systems to help reduce carbon emission," he says.

A high density rack solution, server consolidation and virtualization helped TCS reduce power consumption at its datacenters, enabling rack power management and optimizing cooling load using thermal modeling. In an office environment, Kumar implemented an IT-enabled way to reduce the use of paper. "This was achieved by enabling distributed file sharing. Power consumption was reduced by using power efficient TFT monitors and desktop virtualization," Kumar explains. Apart from this, Kumar also reduced travel costs with VoIP, video-conferencing, and other collaboration tools.

But getting here wasn't easy. "We operate from a large number of geographically spread out locations, so implementing these initiatives was a major challenge. This was addressed with green IT program management governance with a local sponsor at every location," he says.

Also, prioritizing initiatives that could provide high return and were sustainable was a concern.  An analysis of the industry helped the company prioritize. Today, its green IT initiatives have improved the company's operational efficiency, "They have helped TCS service more users with fewer resources and decrease carbon emissions - while trimming cost," says Kumar.

Server consolidation and virtualization of datacenters resulted in 79 percent savings in power consumed by servers.