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By Dr. Elizabeth
Hinkle-Turner, Assistant Director - Academic Computing and User
Services
The other day I got an email
from a music organization asking me whether I wanted to get their
newsletter digitally or continue to receive it in 'dead tree format'.
Well, in addition to being a very effective way to get folks to convert
to digital (who wants to get anything 'dead' in the mail?!) it got me to
thinking about how technology is SUPPOSED to ultimately save time and
resources. I still remember when utopian techies envisioned that the
need for paper would be eliminated completely by technology, little
dreaming that there are still folks who print out every email they
receive! And even though it may take me awhile to get used to drinking
my morning coffee while perusing the newspaper displayed on my laptop, I
imagine that this day is not long in the future as the 'dead tree
format' paper on my doorstep keeps getting ominously thinner every week.
I and my colleagues from Academic Computing and User Services (ACUS)
will have a presence at UNT's upcoming
Earth Week
extravaganza at both the Clark Park and Library Mall Sustainability
Fairs. Come by our table to learn more about earth-friendly computing
projects at the Computing and Information Technology Center (CITC)
at UNT or, better yet, read about these projects and the people who run
them below and then come by and say, 'Hello!' anyway!
EagleConnect - bringing a digital communication suite to
students at UNT:
In February, CITC unveiled its EagleConnect student digital
communication system which contains many earth-friendly features.
EagleConnect is powered by Microsoft and features the same email
package and compatible chat and calendar and address book packages
that are utilized by the UNT faculty and staff. This allows for
exclusively digital communication between student services and their
constituents. Ultimately letters, forms, announcements, reminders
and other information that may have had to be sent via 'dead tree
format' can be communicated digitally. Of course, UNT's old
Eaglemail system allowed this as well and email is the
official means of communication between the university and the
students, but now with EagleConnect, that official communication can
also be via chat, calendar appointments and the like. Imagine
getting advised on your schedule for the summer semester via text
message with your advisor on your cell phone while sipping coffee at
Jazzman's. Or working on a group paper assignment via the Office
Live collaboration tools while curled up comfortably on your bed in
your apartment rather than having to walk across campus to meet
together at a pre-arranged spot, paper printouts in hand? Students,
faculty, and staff are reminded here that the deadline for migrating
any emails you want to keep from the old Eaglemail system to the new
EagleConnect system is May 18. Don't wait for the deadline - get
some earth-friendly computing in your life today! For more
information see this article in this
issue of Benchmarks Online. To switch over to EagleConnect go
to: eagleconnect.unt.edu.
ImageNow - making the world safe for empty file cabinets:
Tracy Hansen, head of
Imaging Services in the Enterprise Systems and Technical
Services area of the CITC, describes what she and her team is doing:
"We are using a product called ImageNow. It allows us to capture
documents from scanners, faxes, email and any electronic file type
to then index and archive for later use. This allows us to free up
large areas that are currently full of file cabinets. Staff and
faculty will no longer have to print docs out, but can retrieve them
directly from the ImageNow client or the WebNow browser via IE or
Firefox. We have rolled out 10 departments on campus including
Enrollment Management, HR, PPS and many others. We are working
toward a goal of making UNT as paperless as possible and ridding
ourselves of the waste of ink and toner cartridges while making UNT
more efficient and productive." Digital imaging promises to continue
to be an important part of the 'paperless campus' in the future.
Now I am still trying to figure out how all this
technology is going to save me TIME...so far it hasn't but at least
it is saving me paper!
GreenVM - not only saving energy resources but human
resources as well:
Craig Terrell, head of the
GreenVM project
(also a part of Enterprise Systems and Technical Services), like
Tracy Hansen sums up his team's project nicely with an eye towards
its environmentally-friendly potential: "The UNT GreenVM project
aims to consolidate server resources and hardware costs into a
centralized location. This means that the hardware is being used to
its available capacity instead of wasting cooling and electricity as
the majority of servers do. With our existing VM infrastructure, we
can run between 25 to 60 virtual servers (Web, Application, File &
Print, etc.) on each physical server. This method also allows us
more efficient use of storage resources by utilizing a SAN (Storage
Area Network) which shares a large array of drives across multiple
servers."
Terrell further explains some of the technical aspects and
advantages of his project: "All the virtual servers are running on
clustered physical servers. If we do suffer a hardware failure, the
virtual servers automatically move to another physical server with
minimal down time, typically under 2 minutes or less. If we receive
notification of a looming failure we can migrate the servers with
zero downtime. There is no worry about setting up or maintaining any
hardware. No AC issues, no power issues, no hardware failure or
associated parts issues. A VM behaves like a physical server but
boots much faster. You retain all control over it, just as you would
if you owned the hardware, but without the hardware headaches. That
does mean you will be having to patch and backup the virtual server
just as you would a physical server. Physical servers can be
migrated onto a virtual server, a process called P2V. This is useful
if there are existing server hardware issues or the need to retire
an older server without the expense of new hardware." So like many
green technologies, not only are virtual servers a way to stay green
but they also offer overall workflow and efficiency advantages as
well.
The GreenVM project has helped the distributed computing areas on
campus in freeing up many of their technical and personnel resources
to concentrate on direct desktop and user services. With server
management not so much a part of their jobs, staff members can
really hone in on their already fine customer service. Terrell
reports that over 70 VM's are in production for departments such as
Facilities, Student Development, the College of Music and TAMS as
well as several CITC internal projects. Terrell cites future plans
and advantages as well: "The CITC VM systems are available to all
departments within UNT with a nominal cost. It is typically less
expensive than purchasing a server over a three-year period with the
added benefits of high-availability and easier management. In order
to maximize the benefit of a virtual environment, the plan is to
migrate or launch new projects in VM whenever possible. The more we
move to VM, the less cooling and electricity we need per server." In
addition, his team is implementing full offsite DR (Disaster
recovery) for major systems and projects.
UNTranet - Today UNTranet, Tomorrow the (Green) World!:
Susan Pierce (also of Enterprise Systems and Technical
Services...somebody get this department an ecology award!) manages
the UNTranet project,
UNT's SharePoint services. She describes several green aspects of
the work of her team: "Our SharePoint farm, called UNTranet, runs on
five servers – three of these are virtual servers, which require
less power and cooling. UNTranet is accessible by UNT employees from
home or on the road. Users can access their documents directly via
the Internet, so there is less of a need to drive to the office or
leave office computers running for remote login. SharePoint
facilitates collaboration between members of departments,
committees, etc. These collaborating groups can access a single site
with their documents, easily set up electronic discussions, task
lists and calendars, etc. People can have “offline” meetings, saving
time and gas. SharePoint’s document libraries make much better use
of disk space when compared to using email for document
collaboration. (For some of us, this also helps to save our sanity.)
The version control feature in SharePoint document libraries
automates the tracking of changes to a document. This saves time and
possibly lots of printed copies of each revision."
Susan adds, "In many ways, SharePoint saves time. Perhaps the
time saved could be used to walk, bike, or use public
transportation! " I know from personal experience that SharePoint
can be quite useful. Several of us in the ACUS area had to do some
application maintenance projections recently. We used to have to
pass around an Excel spreadsheet with all of our responses which
were then compiled by ACUS Director, Dr. Philip Baczewski. This
year we could just go on to the UNTranet and fill out the form there
and save our changes with no passing around needed. At first, I had
to figure out some technical issues on my end but once I got the
document functioning properly for my laptop, the collaborative form
worked quickly and well.
High Performance Computing
Finally, though many may think of "environmentally friendly high
performance computing" (HPC)
as an oxymoron what with all the electrical power and
air-conditioning needed to keep large server clusters happy and
running well, this is an area contributing extensively to our
earth's future. Many of the HPC cluster projects on campus including
those managed by CITC's Academic Computing and User Services are
churning away on biological and chemical simulations of global
warming scenarios in an effort to come up with solutions to these
pressing earth issues. As one ACUS staffer put it, "We are doing
lots of research so that your children can still have frogs in the
Amazon!"
Savin' the Green
Green computing practices not only save the earth, they also 'save
the green' as in those nice, green dollar bills. As illustrated above,
not only do most of these projects save on the power bills, they also
allow for greater efficiency of physical resources and human energy.
Think about ways you can practice green computing:
- Take online courses and/or send your professors assignments
digitally instead of as a print out.
- Don't print out all those emails, save all your important
documents to a flash drive "file cabinet" rather than printing them
out and filing them in a real one.
- Be sure to configure the energy-saving settings on your desktop
computer.
From UNT centralized computing all the way to your laptop, green
computing is the way to go! See you at Earth Day! (Thanks to Tracy
Hansen, Craig Terrell, Susan Pierce, Larry Talley, Philip Baczewski, and
DaMiri Young for their help on this article.)
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