Information Technology

Green Initiatives

As part of Butler's overall program to become a more sustainable campus, IT is working to improve the sustainability of our operations and infrastructure. By looking at everything from our data center to the paper used in printers we have already made strides toward reducing our environmental impact.

Things IT Is Doing

  • In the Butler Data Center
    • Using industry standard hot aisle/cold aisle design to improve cooling efficiency and save energy (picture)
    • Using much of the heat generated by servers and other equipment for re-use elsewhere in the building
    • Using high voltage power distribution to improve efficiency
    • All furniture in the network operations center (NOC) is made with recycled materials
  • Using Blade Servers (Details)
    • More efficient power supplies than traditional rack mount servers
    • Fewer power supplies and less wasted energy
    • Less packing material and less waste when the equipment is at the end-of-life
  • Server Virtualization (Video)
    • ~ 18:1 reduction in number of physical servers
    • Expect around 85% of our servers to be virtual in next 6-12 months
    • Improves resource utilization and efficiency
    • Started purchasing high efficiency CPUs about 18 months ago (power reduction of about 40Watts/cpu)
  • Investigating Storage Virtualization Technologies (
    • Using thin provisioning to reduce the number of idle drives - will grow and use power as necessary instead of provisioning everything in advance
    • Expect to investigate solid state storage (SSD's use less than 10% of the power of traditional disks)
  • Decreasing Reliance on Paper
    • Many offices are beginning to use document imaging and scanning to PDF instead of making paper copies of documents required for University processes.

Things You Can Do

  • "Think Before You Print"
  • Turn off or put your personal computer to sleep when you aren't using it.  If you are using a Butler computer, log off when you leave for the day, but leave the computer on to facilitate the updating process.
  • Always recycle paper and e-waste instead of throwing it away - http://www.sustainindy.org/toxdrop.cfm