Introduction
This report entails the comprehensive implementation of green computing in Zayed University (ZU). The report provides an overview of the whole process and the probable outcome of the project. The project was implemented from June 2015 to October 2015. The primary aim of the project was to enable the University to lead in the process of highlighting and sensitization of green computing in learning institutions.
Background
Green computing is one of the many ways an institution can cut on energy cost and still operate efficiently whilst conserving the environment and energy (Smith, 2013, p. 44). Energy has been the leading expenditure in Zayed University (Haas, 2013, p. 54). The university was established in 1998 and is one of the three universities in the United Arab emirates that are sponsored by the government.
The university initially admitted women to its institution, but in 2008 the tradition was broken. The learning institution began admitting men, with 200 being admitted during that year. The university has specialized on six major areas which have divided into faculties. These facilities include, the school of arts and sciences, school of communication and media, school of education, school of business, school of information technology and the overall University College (Haas, 2013, p. 54).
Environment is a key concern in the world today. With the issue of global warming, and calls for conservation, Zayed University has strived to help in the environmental conservation by implementing green computing in its institution (Haas, 2013, p. 54). The green computing entails the use of energy conservative measures in the institution computing systems.
All computers consume a lot of energy which brings about low energy conservation (Haas, 2013, p. 54). Therefore, green energy went an extra mile in enabling the University to lead from the front in the environmental preservation and conservation. The learning institution is modern and therefore most of the activities are modernized and digital. That shows the university makes good use of computer devices in its daily operation.
Objective of the Project
The three main objectives of the project are:
- To conserve the energy use. The university has modernized all its operations and therefore all activities in the institution utilizes the use of computing system. The computing system consumes a lot of energy and most of the energy get lost thus wastage. Therefore the project seeks to help the institution to conserve the environment as well as to cut on the energy wastage.
- To save on the cost of energy. The university has spent nearly a quarter of its annual budget on energy. That means the most of the activities undertaken in the university utilize the energy. Most of these activities are carried out by the use of computing system, thus making it the leading in energy consumption. The project will therefore help the institution to cut its annual budget to nearly half.
- To pass a conservation (green) message to every stakeholder of the institution. The implementation of the green computing project at the institution, will pass a strong message to all the stakeholders about the advantages of conservation. Thus the project will aim at encouraging all the stakeholders to take positively the conservation process.
Project Justification
Going green does not necessarily mean keeping the environment free of debris. Conservation is a strong component of the environment and therefore this project strives to help the institution achieve its goal of conserving the energy. Most of the energy use of the institution is wasted. Therefore, computing systems have been highlighted as the major energy consumption activity at the institution.
The energy consumption has proved to be costly for the university with the institution spending quarter of its annual budget on energy. Green computing system reduces the energy consumption of the computing system by half. That means the cost of energy the university incurs is reduced by half. That gives the validity of the green computing project (Yamini, 2012, p. 128).
The Project Scope
The project affected all the computing system of the Zayed University. The major area of concern was the starting point. The project highlighted the six major branches of the university (colleges). The commencement of the project was determined by the energy consumption of individual entities. The project started on the faculty that had the massive use of computing systems in a descending order to the least faculty that utilizes the computing system. The identification of the massive computing system in the institution was done by identifying the energy consumption in the colleges. The college with the high consumption rate was identified as a pioneer in the project implementation.
Project Time
The project took five months from start of June to end of October. The planning of the project started in the beginning of June. The management of the institution met in June and all the budgeting of the project, and selection of the starting point was made. The time frame was also set. All the material was purchased and approved in July.
Also that same month the computer technicians were employed and also approved. The project started in July immediately after the approval of the materials and it took two months for the project to be completed. The upgrading of the computing system towards the greener option took two months since the whole process was conducted both during the day as well as during the night. The project was completed in August. In September, the project was assessed for quality and risk. The assessment process took two months. After the assessment process the project was approved and closed in October. The time frame of the project is clearly indicated on the Gantt Chart below.
The Gantt Chart of the Green Computing in Zayed University
| Activities | Project Time Frame | ||||
| Project Panning | |||||
| Material Purchase and approval | |||||
| Project Start | |||||
| Project assessment | |||||
| Project closure | |||||
| June | July | August | September | October | |
SWOT Analysis of the Project
The project main goal was to help the organization to conserve the energy by putting to an end the unnecessary wastage of energy. The energy wastage was due to huge consumption of energy by the old computing systems which in turn costed the institution. As stated the university annual spending on energy was almost a quarter of the annual budget. However, the project had the capacity to reduce the cost of energy by half. This part of the report analyses the strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats of the project.
Strengths
The major strength of the project was the fact that the project had the capacity to reduce the energy consumption as well as the cost of the energy by half. That entails the university would save half of its initial expenditure on energy. That improves the financial situation of the institution. Secondly, the project gives the institution the brighter look. Many of the institutions will look up to the institution due to its strong environmental message.
The project sends strong environmental message to many institutions across the world with the main topic being conservation critical for environmental health. The third strength of the project is the fact that the project increases the awareness of environmental awareness among its stakeholders (D’Hollander, 2013, p. 26). The stakeholders of the institutions are the employees, students, the government, and the whole community that surrounds the organization. The project will therefore increase the understanding of conservation of the environment and its understanding of its benefits.
Weakness
The main weakness that the project faced was the financial aspect. The cost of upgrading all computing systems into a greener approach was high. That made the University to shuffle the annual budget to accommodate the project. The university did forego some of the activities so that the project could be actualized. The other weakness that the project faced was the availability of the technicians. The upgrade required complete technical staff who were conversant with the project. The university had to outsource some of them from other areas (Jeong, Jeong, & Park, 2014, p. 287).
Opportunities
The project provided an ideal opportunity to the stakeholders to learn the methods of conserving the energy (Saxena, 2015, p. 28). Most of the stakeholders agreed to implement some of the project techniques in their homes, thus giving the project a great impact. Students who utilize the computing system have also benefited from the opportunities availed by the project. The project employed some of the students to help in the implementation process. Therefore the project directly and indirectly helped the students of the University. Since the start of the project, many students have taken up the importance of going green and even some have set up groups of awareness that have continuously strived to help the project to be a success.
Threats
The project faces numerous threats. One of the threats that the project faced is the vandalism. Some of the users of the computing system have had a negative stereotype that the upgrade slows down the computing process. People with this mentality may strive to vandalize the new system. The other threat that the project is facing is theft. The project utilizes expensive equipment with the majority of the systems installed externally. That gives room for easy theft. Naughty individuals may result to stealing of some of the equipments with a view of selling them on the black market (Saxena, 2015, p. 28).
Financial Analysis
Materials
The materials for use in the project was sourced from Information Technology firm in Dubai. These materials included the solar panels, low energy consumption hardwares, and low visual systems (Jadeja, & Modi, 2012, p. 67). These materials are largely for energy reduction thus making the computer system more economical as well as environmentally friendly. The solar panels were sourced at an initial cost of $100 a piece. 50 pieces of solar panels were utilized for the project. The solar panels offered an alternative source of energy to the university. The solar panel is expected to power half of the computer system at the institution. The low energy consumption hardwares were sourced at $100 each. 200 consumption hardwares were needed to complete the upgrade project. The low energy consumption upgrade hardware was meant to limit the computers energy consumption. The installation of the hardware needed expert approach since the installation was required to be smooth without affecting the functionality and efficiency of computers. The last key material was a low visual system which reduces the consumption of energy by computer monitors. Each of low visual system cost $100 and 200 of them were needed for the project. Therefore, the total amount used to purchase material was $45,000.
Staff
The project needed 60 staff members with each working on shifts of day and night. Among the 60, two were the project overseers while the rest were technicians. 48 of the project staff were complete trained computer technicians while 10 were University students who were employed in the student work program. All trained technicians received $20,000 a month salary each for the duration of the project. The students received $10,000 a month each also for the duration of the project. The two overseers of the project were paid $50,000 a month for the duration of the project. Therefore, the total amount paid for staff salary totaled $1,160,000 for the whole duration of the project.
Funding
The funds for the project was obtained from the university kitty. The university sponsored 60% of the upgrade process while the government sponsored 40% of the total funds. The whole project required $1,205,000 from inception to completion. The university therefore contributed $723,000 while the government contributed $482,000. The government became interested in the project and offered to sponsor project assessment and risk assessment by using government project analysts.
Critical Finanancial Analysis
Net Present Value
The calculation of the net present for the project is as follows:
The formula for the net present value is future cash flow / (1 + discounting rate) ^ periods (Kotz, Kozubowski, & Podgorski, 2012, p. 67-94).
By using the formula the net present value of the project is
$1,205,000 / (1 + 0.1) ^0.42
= $1,205,000 / 1.041
= $1,157,540.81
Return on Investment
The return on investment is calculated by the application of the formula (Kotz, Kozubowski, & Podgorski, 2012, p. 67-94):
ROI = (Gain from Investment – cost of investment) / Cost of Investment
To calculate the return on the investment the annual budget of the university must be known. The gain of the investment must also be known. In regard to the project the gain is the cost that is saved by the installation of the system. The average annual budget of the institution (university) is $20,000,000. The initial energy cost was a quarter of the annual budget. Therefore, the quarter of the annual budget is $5,000,000. The gain from the project is further half of the cost initially used for the energy. Therefore the university will save $2,500,000 which is its gain. Cost of investment was $1,205,000. Therefore, the return on investment is as follows (2,500,000 – 1,205,000) / 1,205,000 = 1.075
Payback Period
The payback period for the project is calculated by the use of investment required for a project / net annual cash inflow (Kotz, Kozubowski, & Podgorski, 2012, p. 67-94). The net annual cash inflow is the gain from the project which is $2,500,000. The investment required for the project is $1,205,000. Therefore the payback period is $2,500,000 / $1,205,000 = 2.075 years.
Project Risk Management
Risk is one of the major worry of a project. Despite risk being a worry, projects have never failed to be implemented. There are many ways of dealing with risk. Some of the major risk management tools are; risk transfer, risk absorption, risk aversion, and risk sharing. Avoiding risk entails not undertaking the project therefore no development. However, there are various options available for projects to deal with the risk. The implementing of the green computing project faces several risks. The risks that the project faced or is still facing include risk of vandalism, risk of robbery, operational risk, and model risk. The project risk management is summarized on the framework below:
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Project Quality Management
Project quality management entails maintaining the quality of the project in the long term progression of the project. The quality management tries to identify the outcome of the implementation process. According to Zayed University the six colleges use many computers. The implementation of the project (upgrade) entails moving the former computing system into a modern green system. The users of the new system have shown an increase in efficiency. Control of the new equipment has exhibited reduced energy.
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Recommendation
The project involves a massive upgrade to the computing system into green computing system. The project is advantageous to the institution since the university will have saved some cost. Despite the importance of the project the university should offer training to the students and staff who are bound to utilize the system. The new system involves a lot of adjustment. The student and the staff are expected to find it difficult to adjust to the new system. The changes include reduced screen brightness which many of the students and staff equally will find hard to adjust. Therefore, the training will help the students and staff to familiarize with the new changes. The training will also give the students clue and understanding on how to effectively and efficiently utilize the system. They will also have the knowledge on how to help in preserving and maintaining the system.
Conclusion
The project is an ideal statement to the world. The environmental issue has been a major talking point in the world. The conservation of energy falls under the environmental issue. According to the university, a quarterly budget is spent on the energy. That is too much given that there are many other alternatives of the energy. The solar panel installation helps the institution in providing these energy options. According to the project, the solar panel will serve nearly half of the entire institution. That means the institution will save half of the already expensive energy. The solar panel is renewable and therefore there is no cost involved. The project also promises to maintain the efficiency of the computing system, therefore the students and staff will find it normal to use except for some few changes that might occur.
References
Smith, B. E. (2013). Green Computing: Tools and Techniques for Saving Energy, Money, and Resources. CRC Press.
Saxena, S. (2015). Green Computing: Need of the Hour. Small, 8(2.5), 20W.
Jeong, H. Y., Jeong, Y. S., & Park, J. H. (2014). G-Cloud Monitor: A Cloud Monitoring System for Factory Automation for Sustainable Green Computing. Sustainability, 6(12), 8510-8521.
D’Hollander, E. H. (2013). Palette: A cache leakage energy saving technique for green computing. Transition of HPC Towards Exascale Computing, 24, 46.
Haas, L. (2013). Implementing the Learning Commons in a Middle Eastern University Library: The Case of Zayed University.
Kotz, S., Kozubowski, T., & Podgorski, K. (2012). The Laplace distribution and generalizations: a revisit with applications to communications, economics, engineering, and finance. Springer Science & Business Media.
Yamini, R. (2012, March). Power management in cloud computing using green algorithm. In Advances in Engineering, Science and Management (ICAESM), 2012 International Conference on (pp. 128-133). IEEE.
Jadeja, Y., & Modi, K. (2012, March). Cloud computing-concepts, architecture and challenges. In Computing, Electronics and Electrical Technologies (ICCEET), 2012 International Conference on (pp. 877-880). IEEE.