"The Greening of SaaS"

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"The Internet is fast becoming an essential business tool, allowing companies to extend their reach, collaborate with other business professionals and grow rapidly, however it also introduces a range of network security concerns."
Source : MessageLabs | Now part of Symantec

Resources Related to The Greening of SaaS:

• Software as a Service(SaaS) (Wikipedia)

The Greening of SaaS

Overview

As individuals and organizations improve their understanding of the environmental impact of computing technology, concepts such as "green IT" and corporate responsibility have gained great importance and value. Going forward, equations such as total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) will be forever altered by considerations related to energy consumption, carbon footprint and overall environmental efficiency and impact.

Software as a Service (SaaS) represents a model for software delivery where a service provider licenses an application to a consumer or corporate entity to use as a service on demand. In practice, SaaS is often considered synonymous with "hosted services." SaaS providers may host such applications on their own Web servers, or they may contract service operations to third parties who operate Web servers on their behalf. Either way, using SaaS may also require downloading some software to client devices to interact with those servers and provide necessary proofs of identity and paid-up status before access will be permitted. SaaS offerings cover the spectrum of today's software and services, and include everything from customer relationship management (CRM) to line-of-business applications (payroll, accounting, inventory management) to messaging and Web security, information and device management and more.

The benefits of SaaS are many and also varied. Traditionally, the SaaS value proposition has come primarily from reducing the administrative overhead and costs involved in installing, deploying and supporting stand-alone software. SaaS also allows organizations to convert fixed costs for software at the time of purchase to an operating expense sufficient to cover a pool of on-demand licenses large enough to accommodate peak usage rather than a capital expense acquiring a license for each user's machine.

According to a global survey of more than 1,000 respondents in 15 countries, green IT is now an "essential" for organizations - 97 percent have or are developing a strategy. - "Green IT Report-Global: May 2009," Symantec

In light of green IT, a new perspective illuminates these advantages from a different vantage point. With no hardware to purchase or software to run, the energy required to power that hardware and execute that software is eliminated or significantly reduced, depending on client-side resource consumption. Later in the lifecycle, this also means no obsolete hardware to decommission, nor any need to arrange for appropriate recycling or disposal. If SaaS is viewed correctly as a form of "service outsourcing," it also eliminates headcount required for typical IT efforts related to installation, deployment and maintenance (or alternatively allows redeployment of IT staff to higher-value tasks.) This, too, reduces the overall local energy footprint.

As we revisit this information in more detail in the following sections, we'll drill down into key details and explain how SaaS can boost your organization's social responsibility and environmental friendliness while simultaneously reducing its carbon footprint.

What does "green" mean?

Ultimately, how green an organization's IT operations are depends on its overall energy consumption. This applies at every level of the infrastructure from the desktop to the local network, and to the servers, storage farms and data centers that operate in the background to deliver information technology to its users. SaaS enters on the server or data center side of this equation by reducing the need for large, complex and expensive centralized components. It really can't do much to reduce the energy footprint for end users, except to offload processing from client computers so that they function like smart terminals when running SaaS applications. This means users operate within graphical interfaces to click commands and view results, but they don't have to do much processing on their local machines. Because the majority of real computing takes place at the provider data center, local energy consumption is significantly reduced with SaaS.

Energy: the economics of outsourced services

The economics of outsourced services such as SaaS are intriguing. Essentially, you incur an annual fixed expense for access and licensing rather the more typical up-front costs of software acquisition and any ongoing annual charges related to maintenance, upgrades and technical support. And with SaaS, network and Internet access are even more important than in traditional client/server environments because these ingredients are essential to providing end users access to the software and services that SaaS delivers.

This approach also adds flexibility to SaaS environments because end users require only a Web browser to access services. An end user can work with SaaS just as well from home or on the road as in an office or conference room, whether on a desktop computer or notebook PC. A Web-browser-based processing model generally falls into the "thin client" category, which consumes much less energy than running code on work machines, accessing local servers or other data center resources.

Instead of the initial upfront acquisition costs, followed by annual renewal fees typical for traditional stand-alone client/server software, SaaS costs are usually structured at recurring periodic intervals. Not only does this help to make costs more regular and predictable, it also presents a unified cost structure for the services and software that SaaS delivers. To calculate TCO, there's no need to add in line item or cost center charges for data center usage, or to figure in energy and other usage costs. In general, greener options should be less costly and consume less energy. By limiting and even reducing overall outlays and energy footprints, SaaS delivers on this premise.

Hardware: "server-in-the-middle" SaaS architectures reduce on-site needs

By its nature, SaaS maintains a virtualized presence on customer premises. The virtual nature of SaaS means that users/customers access software and services through their Web browsers locally, but information storage, processing and activity take place somewhere off in the cloud, away from the customer's own premises. The "cloud" in this case is at the service provider's premises in a data center or a third party's hosting operation.

Other economies also scale into the service provider side of this equation:

• Aggregation of client traffic requires fewer servers and infrastructure elements overall at the hosting site, and smoothes out peaks and spikes. Clients can also enjoy on-demand capacity without incurring incremental costs.
• Aggregation of client traffic also permits service providers to deploy more advanced, faster equipment and processing techniques that incurs a lower overall processing overhead than if operations were conducted piecemeal at client sites.
• Processing traffic in the cloud before it reaches client sites removes the need to upgrade networking equipment at client facilities
• Centralized facilities make more efficient use of device and capacity, imposing a smaller global energy and carbon footprint as compared to piecemeal client-side deployments
• Service providers generally monitor power usage closely and carefully, and evaluate new server and storage technologies constantly to achieve continuing efficiency improvements. This includes aggressive hardware refresh programs that rotate and recycle older, less-efficient equipment constantly in exchange for new, more efficient models.
• A deep and committed focus on state-of-the-art application development and maintenance tools and technologies helps vendors maximize SaaS service and software efficiency.

Efficiencies on the service provider side are nowhere near as interesting to SaaS consumers as efficiencies on their side of this software and services delivery model. In the sections that follow, we explain how such efficiencies occur along multiple dimensions on the customer side.

Spending money versus burning energy

There's a definite trade-off involved in switching over from a local, traditional software-and-data center processing model to a distributed SaaS processing model. Most SaaS providers seek to mitigate cost impacts by smoothing them out over time, and by using their economies of scale to offer reasonable charges for feature-rich software and services. The commercial success and widespread use of the SaaS model argues eloquently enough for its viability and suitability as a business model. Nevertheless, using SaaS technology involves a conscious decision to spend money for services rather than to implement them oneself. A few under-appreciated benefits of SaaS are potential energy savings and a reduced IT infrastructure footprint.

Since August 2007, MessageLabs has saved 38,592 MwH by replacing older hardware with more energy-efficient servers. Our proprietary traffic-shaping has also saved over 16,080 MwH in the same time period.

Contracting services versus adding headcount

The human side of the business equation remains the single biggest cost factor in the vast majority of IT operations, from largest to smallest. Because employing SaaS helps reduce local needs for trained, well-paid IT staff, and delegates the responsibility for deployment, installation and maintenance to the service provider, it's reasonable to understand SaaS as a traditional outsourcing handoff to a trusted and respected business partner. This becomes a classic case of contracting for services from a provider instead of hiring the human resources necessary to do the job in-house.

Another way to look at this tradeoff is to say "SaaS software and services need no provisioning, only funding." In a typical IT environment, systems installation, setup, configuration, management and troubleshooting are performed in-house. When a SaaS provider gets involved, they cover all of these bases in exchange for the fixed costs they charge for the services that the customer utilizes.

Virtualized services means no hardware lifecycle to manage

Because customers delegate necessary equipment needs for servers, storage and other computing tasks related to processing SaaS services and applications to the service provider, they also delegate the acquisition, maintenance and ultimate disposal of the hardware involved to the service provider. This effectively means that there's no related hardware lifecycle to manage on the software and services side for customers, except as it touches on the desktop and notebook PCs, or other client devices that users may employ to access SaaS offerings.

Because SaaS software and services only require the end user to have a current Web browser (some SaaS tools even work with stripped-down browser versions built for PDAs and smartphones), this extends the types of platforms that users can put to work. Outside the platform on which the browser runs, however, the rest of the hardware involved in SaaS services and software delivery is the service provider's responsibility, not the customer's. This means the provider must follow careful, safe disposal of systems and other forms of electronic waste during its usual hardware replacement and transition lifecycles.

Green is a growth market

When an organization decides to adopt a green philosophy-which usually means reducing its carbon footprint, lowering overall energy consumption and practicing social responsibility-it practices a regular drill to turn the concept into an operational reality. Where IT is concerned, this starts from an initial assessment of the IT environment in terms of resource consumption and waste production.

On the resource consumption front, this means establishing an energy budget to determine where the energy is going, and what kinds of systems and devices are involved in energy consumption. At the same time, the organization must review its purchasing policies for equipment and spaces to ensure that applicable standards and programs-such as ENERGY STAR® and 80 PLUS® ratings for computing equipment, heating and cooling standards for computer rooms and so forth-become standard operating procedure for all future activity and acquisition.

On the waste front, this means analyzing and assessing the various waste streams that an organization produces, and making arrangements for safe, responsible recycling 1. Green IT is now an "essential" (97 percent have or are developing a strategy). 2. Green IT budgets are rising (73 percent are increasing their green IT budgets). 3. IT is willing to pay a premium for green equipment (68 percent are willing to pay a 10-percent or higher premium). - "Green IT Report-Global: May 2009," Symantec and disposal of the output from those waste streams. "eCycling," the practice of sending old or outmoded computing equipment to homes or businesses for continued use is gaining considerable traction in many parts of the world. Donation and recycling programs are ideal recipients for e-waste of all kinds, so it's important to investigate the options available in your area and the possible tax credits gained from donations.

A good place to start learning more about this subject is at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) eCycling Web page (www.epa.gov/waste/conserve/materials/ecycling/).

Where other forms of waste are concerned-primarily paper and cardboard-most organizations already employ good recycling programs, along with secure shredding for documents containing sensitive or confidential data.

It's important to establish a holistic perspective when creating an energy budget and documenting the energy sources and resources your organization consumes. There's a lot more involved in finding potential energy savings than just computer rooms, wiring closets and data centers. In an organization with thousands or tens of thousands of PCs, cell phones, printers and other electronic devices, small savings broadly applied across such numbers can quickly add up to significant energy savings, and also lower an organization's carbon footprint. Responsible disposal of e-waste can also pay all kinds of dividends, particularly in the context of donation programs designed to help underprivileged and underserved populations.

Where many businesses approach going green from a standpoint of social responsibility and cost savings, and look for benefits to show up on the bottom line, governments at all levels-municipal, county, state and federal-are working to comply with green mandates. Public and private organizations across the board are going green, leading to the creation of companies and services to assist in the process. For the private sector, it's also important to research available tax credits and incentives related to green initiatives: these can add to the return on a green investment in your company and sweeten the payoff involved.

The Green Guide to the 2009 Stimulus Package from the Green Research Council at www.greenstimulusguide.com provides a thorough review of Green Stimulus opportunities for U.S. organizations, based on funds made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Readers will find information about programs from nearly 20 federal departments, agencies and foundations, including over $6 billion in state and federal grants and state incentives directly related to energy efficiency and conservation.

Typical phases in "going green"

The overall process involves three major phases, each of which is divided into multiple subtasks. Those three major phases are:

• Assessment: Investigate the situation, and analyze and document resource consumption and waste production.
• Planning: Look for efficiencies, improvements and reductions, then decide how best to specify, fund, schedule and manage their implementation.
• Implementation: Enact the plan created in the preceding phase according to its specifications, budget and schedule. This usually involves "before" and "after" energy and waste audits to determine how well the plan has been met, what kinds of savings have been realized and to cycle back through planning and implementation phases on a regular schedule.

As organizations work through the stages of assessment, planning, and implementation they will not only define and refine their notions of cost savings, energy conservation, and reduction of their carbon footprints. They will also develop a keen sense of their energy budget, and where larger costs (with more room for future cuts or changes) are focused. Assessment is when SaaS options should be considered, planning is when actual SaaS solutions must be chosen, and implementation is when those solutions will be deployed. Also, because the people in any organization are critical to the success of green initiatives, it's important to include staff training (an introduction for new hires, and annual refreshers for existing staff) to make sure they understand their impact on and role in managing energy consumption and conservation.

According to a global survey, "Companies are no longer seeking green IT merely to cut costs, either. True, reducing energy consumption (90 percent) and reducing cooling costs (87 percent) were the most important reasons companies listed for implementing green IT. However, a desire from corporate headquarters to qualify as "green" (86 percent) was nearly as important." - "Green IT Report-Global: May 2009,"

Symantec "Perhaps in the past [green IT] was a wish-list item, it's now essential for almost all the companies we surveyed," explained Jose Iglesias, Vice President of Global Solutions, Office of the CTO, Symantec, in a phone interview. More telling is that the survey found that budgets for green IT have been rising: "Most IT budgets are declining or staying flat; so the fact that these numbers are rising is pretty remarkable." - Reuters

Read the entire Symantec 2009 Worldwide Green IT Report

Download at www.symantec.com/about/news/resources/press_kits/detail.jsp?pkid=greenitreport

SaaS cuts directly to the chase

Because of its reduced energy consumption, reduced human resources requirements and its many economies of scale, SaaS plugs straight into green procurement initiatives. Executive, divisional management, IT and procurement staff all need to understand that SaaS offers considerable advantages when implementing green initiatives and the plans that drive them.

SaaS also provides ample opportunities for rapid deployment in that the time-to-benefit for end users that SaaS delivers is much shorter and with minimal involvement from local IT staff. Ultimately SaaS reduces local resource consumption by offloading equipment, processing, services and support onto a service provider organization.

The service provider's ability to consolidate, automate and optimize its operations and equipment is what in the end makes all of these savings possible. By operating at volumes of traffic and activity beyond even what large enterprises can contemplate, service providers can deliver services and software more quickly, reliably and inexpensively than enterprise IT operations. This is the promise of SaaS and why it pays such handsome returns to its customers.

About MessageLabs | Now part of Symantec

MessageLabs, now part of Symantec, is the world's leading provider of managed messaging and Web Security Services. Over 21,000 organizations and over 9 million end users in 99 countries employ MessageLabs services to protect against viruses, spam, phishing, inappropriate Internet use, spyware and other business damaging threats.

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