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GREEN I.T. AT WIPRO

L72 Part 0ne 0rganizations, Management,'and the Networked Enterprise

Wipro Tbchnologies flMipro), a division of \fiproLimited, provide s inte grate d busine ss, technologrand process solutions. In the indian market, Wiprois a leader in providing IT solutions and seryices forthe corporate segment in India, offering system inte-gration, software solutions and IT serrrices. It is aglobal U.S. $ 10 billion company rhat has won

r numerous awards for its leadership, social responsi-bility, and customer care.

Wipro started its green journey with consolidationand virtualization to scale down the enersr con-sumption in its own datacenter. The exponentialgrowth of Wipro's Eerver use was becoming a majorproblem and created an impact on enerry costs. TheIT team decided to tackle the probiem wirhbladeservers and virtuaiization. Commenting on the deci-sion, CIO Laxman Badiga said, ,,... The amount ofspace we used in the datacenter vras optimized byconsolidating our servers for different appiications.This helped open space and optimize our coolingneeds.n

The move to convert a non-green datacenter intoa green one, however, was not easy. There was a lotof financial strain associated with the move. Forexample, the initial inve$tment to virtualize theinfrastructure was Rs. 6 miilion, which needed to beaugmented by 5 to 10 percent with the increase inbusiness needs. Furthermore, the entire datacenterblueprint - which maintained data like how the orga-nization laid out its racks, how much cooiing andpower were needed per rack - had to undergoreview; and the power and cooling reiluirements hadto be re-architected for the new datacenter.Commenting on the chalienges, Jethin ChandranGM-IT Pianning, said, ,'Retrofitting can create a ioi ofimpact. Then there are challenges in downtime.o

In August 2005, the company embarked on tack_ling the e-waste problem by getting its manufactur-ing facitity certified under ISO 14001. A year later,the conrpany announced an e-waste disposal pro-gram for its customers, whereby it collected dis-carded systems from customers and sent them tovendors certified by the pollution Control Board todispose of the parts. The e-waste management initia-tive dubbed - Green Computi4g - enabled end-to-ende-waste management in its product lifecycie, span-ning designing, manufacturing and up to the finaldisposal of the product.

In June 2007, Wipro became the first lndian com-pany to introduce an eco-friendly range ofdesktopsand laptops aimed at reducing e-wast€ in the envi,ronment. The new ranges of.products, namedGreenWare, were compliant with the EuropeanRestriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) direc-tive. The RoHS directive, adopted in 2003 by theEuropean Union, restricts the use of six hazardousmaterials in the manufacture of various types ofelectronic and electrical equipment. The new pCswouldbe free of hazardous materials such asbromi-nated flame retardants (BFR), polyvinyl chloride(PYC) and heavy metals like lead, cadmium andmercury that had been regularly used in the rnanu- ,

facture of computers.' In June 2008, Wipro joined the Green Grid, a

global consortium dedicated to advancing energyefficiency in datacenters and business computingecosjrstems, In the same month, \{ipro commencedthe EcoEye initiative, a comprehensive program forincreasing ecological sustainability in all its opera-tions and engaging its sharehoiders.

Commenting on this initiative, Chandran said, u...

It is a collaborative effort betvreen our customers,suppliers and employees. We are also working onestabiishing supply chain social environmentresponsibiiity guidelines and work with suppliers toidentify materials that will reduce the environmen-ta1 impact of their products.r

All this would not have been possible without the,commitment from the top. Azim premji, chairman '

and CEO, made it his personal missioh to drive thechange.

He hadbeen closely involved witir EcoEye fromits ineeption and monitored its progress on a regularbasis. Ttre governing council comprised the seniorrnost leaders including the CIO, CFO, CAO, Head. bfHR, and Chief Strategy Officer. At the lower level,business units were responsible for driving green in!tiatives to tho 95,000 plus l{ipro employees. aii pr.o-jects were looked at from an ecological, as well asfinancial, perspective and were signed offby thegoverning council.

As a resuit of adopting green IT practices, Wiproreduced its servers from 400 to 100 and saved about1 million KWh'of power annually. Ttre power con-sumption reduced by 26 percent as a resuLt of rollingout_power managbment tools. \{ith virtualization

DTb

ci:hitesti

terhn;

ancl consoliciation, the company is targeting a reduo-tion jn its selwer fbotprint by 3 percent.

CASE STUDY OUESTIOHS

What rvere the various green initiatives under-taken by Wipro?

What were some of the chaiienges fbced byWipro? What benefits did \{ipro reap from grsencomputing?

What lessons can other organizations learn fromWiprr:'s experience?

Should green-computing be driven by 1T vendors,or shouicl it be driven by corporate customers?Discnss.

Chafter 4 Ethicat and Social Issues in Information Systems 173

$orrces,' John Riberiro, .Wipro Coos Green as lndia,s Ewa$teMounts,.' www.cio,com, Jun.e 200?; ,Expanding Green If^www.cio-in, Novsynlsl 2008; .Wipro Launches EcoEye lilida.tise,'wwwthehindubusiaessline.com, Jun6 l00B; Tim (iray, nWiploJoins the Green Crid," gr€en,hncnet.Goln, June 2008.

Yisit the \{eb site at www.uripro.com and al$osearch the Internet to answer the following ques-tions:

L. How is IT contributing to increased cafbonomissions? \{hat are some estimates of the extentof the problem? Which IT practices are some ofthe biggest culprits?2. What is Wiprors carbon accounting tooi? Hoircan it help companies?

3. What are carbon credits? How can theybe usedby \,Yipro?

4. I{hat are the green initiatives undertaken byother mqjor IT vendors, specificaliy IBM,Microsoft, and HP?

r Case contributed by Nee4ja Sethi and Vijay Sethi, Nanyong llbchnoiogical Universify

Dependence and Vulnerahilitylbday, our businesses, governments, schoois, and private associations, such aschurches, are incredibly dependent on infor:rnation systems and are, therefore,highly vulnerable if these systems fail. with systems now as ubiquitous as thetelephone system, it is startling to remember that there are no regulatory orstaildard-$ettirg forces in place that are simiiar to telephone, electrical, radio,television, or other publii utiiity technoiogies. The absence of stand.ards andthe criticaiity of some sy$tem applications r+,i11 probably call forih demands fornational standar:ds and perhaps regulatory oversight.