Top 7 free green IT tools and calculators

With more news of green IT on-line calculators and free tools, we thought we would bring them all together here for you to check out.  This is a list of seven tools that we have found useful in getting green IT conversations started within organizations.  We've included two categories: (1) Power Management Tools and (2) Green IT Calculators. 

We are always interested to here how other organizations have used the resources we recommend. Please post comments below if you have used any of these tools and what you thought about the results.

Power Management Tools

These are tools to help you manage the energy consumption of your home and work computers.  Read our article "Commercial versus Free Power Management Solutions" for a perspective on using free tools in a corporate setting.

1.  Verdiem's Edison - a power management tool for your home computer.

"Verdiem is leading the charge in helping people cut their energy consumption at home. Install our FREE easy-to-use Edison application to manage your power usage and save on energy costs. It’s a small move that makes a big difference."  Download here.

2.  Energy Star Power Management Tools - network power management tool for network administrators

"EZ GPO is a free tool for network administrators who run Windows Active Directory and manage client workstations using Group Policy Objects (GPOs). EZ GPO provides Group Policy Objects for centrally configuring power management settings, as they are not native in Windows 2000 or XP. However, power management can be managed through Group Policy on Windows Vista machines. (For this reason, the EZ GPO tool does not work on Vista PCs.)." Download here.

_________________________________

Green IT Calculators

These tools all provide some variation of a high level estimate of the costs and environmentals impacts in IT operations.  None are comprehensive and all are based on assumptions that are genrally unacceptable in a rigorous business.  In addition, vendor calculators are intended to sell you a product.  We recommend that you use these tools as a starting place and consult with an expert to understand the reality of the impact and potential savings based on data.  Read our article "Why do a Green IT Assessment?".  With that disclaimer, these tools are great for a first look at what is within the realm of possibility.

1.  Forrester's Green IT Calculator - an online calculator that estimates energy and environmental impacts of computers, monitors and telecom. Forrester has made the code for the widget available so that you can include the calculator on your website.

"The tool walks you through the key green IT baseline assumptions, including the number of IT assets, energy draw, and hours of up-time. For additional accuracy, you can customize your price and CO2 emissions per kilowatt. The tool will then automatically calculate your green IT baseline for your review. From there, you can email the results to yourself for future reference (and you can also help guide our research agenda)." Check it out here.

2.  VMware's Total Cost of Ownership Calculator - this calculator is very comprehensive in bringing together all the costs of managing hardware and estimating the benefits of virtualization.  The environmental impact is not a focus of this calculator.

"The VMware Virtualization TCO / ROI Calculator quantifies the potential cost savings obtained from VMware virtualization solutions. Based on industry research and customer case studies and surveys, the TCO/ ROI Calculator identifies the tangible CapEx and OpEx savings from VMware solutions: Infrastructure Optimization, Lifecycle Management, Disaster Recovery, Application Development and Release Management and Desktop Virtualization." Check it out here.

3.  Microsoft's Virtualization Calculator - an online calculator that integrates the environmental and cost savings to be gained from virtualization.

"a site focused on Microsoft virtualization, where you can put in your information and receive a free benefits report with annual savings broken down into energy usage, costs, and CO2 footprint." Check it out here.

4.  Telus' Green IT Calculator - the most transparent calculator we've seen for virtualization however only set up to look at Canadian provinces.  This calculator adresses the major assumption in all the calculators about the emissions level from different energy sources in different regions.

"Reduce energy cost and environmental impact with server virtualization.  Use our Green IT Calculator and find out how much."

5. Redemtech's Sustainable Computing - an online assessment database created by IDC, Redemtech and sponsored by GreenerComputing.  This assessment is comprehensive and excellent source of inspiration and ideas for lifecycle management initiatives.  You may need time and lots of information to complete the assessment, though depending on the size of your organization and your position.

"See how your IT lifecycle management policies stack up to industry best practices." Complete the assessment here.

That completes our list of free claculators and tools.  Do you have any tools or calculators you'd like to share?  Post your comments below.

Ready to take the next step and complete a more robust assessment?  Check out the Green IT Guide and Toolkit - now 50 %.