Community IT Innovators. Established 1993. Serving social mission organizations with integrated technology services you can trust.

There are a lot of interesting nonprofit technology events coming up in DC in the next few weeks:

• Wednesday, Jan. 27, InsideNGO Technology Update: Inside NGO will be presenting a full day course detailing four technologies. CITI’s Matthew Eshleman will be presenting on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).  Virtual collaboration and training, Windows 7 deployment, and WAN optimization will also be covered.

• Wednesday, Feb. 3, CITIzens’ Forum: The Value of a CIO Perspective: The second forum in our series asks, who is managing technology at your organization? Do you have one person  who takes a big picture view, or are different people responsible for managing your network, website, databases and applications?  What’s the difference between a CIO and a CTO? Join in an open discussion to share what you’re doing and how other organizations address similar challenges.

• Monday-Tuesday, Feb. 8 – 9, Managing Nonprofit Technology Projects: Our second conference partnering with Aspiration to help you better manage technology projects in your nonprofit.  See this post for additional details

• Wednesday, Feb. 10, NTEN Webinar: Greening Your Nonprofit’s IT: Find out what all the green IT buzz is about and get practical information for greening your IT infrastructure.  Matthew Eshleman will be presenting with Peter Campbell on virtualization; other breakout sessions will cover green IT strategy, hardware and software, case studies, and sustainable design and printing.

• Friday, Feb. 12, Nonprofit 2.0: This unconference will let participants shape the agenda around how nonprofits use the latest technology to communicate, fundraise, and organize and advocate for their issues.  The event is already sold out, but there is a waiting list, and there may be a conversation or two to follow on Twitter…

• Wednesday, Feb. 17, CITIzens’ Forum: Salesforce: Learn how organizations are using Salesforce as a powerful CRM to manage contacts, campaigns, and related data; find out how Salesforce could be helpful for your organization, and share your story if you’re already using it.

TechSoup and Microsoft will be conducting two free webinars to help nonprofits reduce the environmental impact of their information technology and learn more on effectively using IT to improve their organization’s efficiency.  They’ll cover ways greening your IT can help reduce energy, resources expended, and costs, as well as practical tips for using power management and Microsoft software.

One webinar is geared towards small organizations, with fewer than 10 PCs and fewer than two servers. (10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern)

The other is aimed at medium and large organizations with more complex IT infrastructure and dedicated IT support. (11 AM Pacific/2 PM Eastern)

Last week, CITI attended the Green Business Summit and awards event at the Omni Shoreham Hotel hosted by the Washington Business Journal. Thanks to the efforts of Brian McIntee, our CFO, and Katherine Mowers, Senior Project Manager, CITI was a 2009 finalist for an award in the Innovation category for implementing green IT practices and significantly reducing energy consumption at our office. George Washington University took home the award for innovation, but they clearly deserved it for their efforts in reducing the amount of waste left behind by students at the end of each term, so it made the disappointment of not receiving the award a little bit easier to take.

At the green business summit, there were panels of experts addressing a wide range of sustainability efforts, from HR best practices like telecommuting and recycling, to videoconferencing and remote monitoring, to less painful financial audits. While these may sound like a bunch of unrelated topics, the underlying narrative for most of their discussions involved sharing their customers’ interest in making the world a better place or attracting the best talent by being the kind of business that values sustainability just as much as everything else.

Among the panelist were John Friedman, representing the Sustainable Business Network of Washington (SBNOW), and Scott Pomeroy of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District, who gave SBNOW and CITI a shout-out for the green business certification process where we earned the highest Green Pillar level certification.

Susan Cunningham, Director of Sustainability Consulting and LEED AP at Gensler, presented a compelling argument for a green development framework for any businesses that focuses on:

• Operating Savings
• Stewardship of resource (or asset value)
• Brand
• Productivity

Susan, as well others, talked about people-driven businesses, knowing the full extent of the expertise you have in the room, and establishing a good measurement practice as keys to a successful green development framework.

Tom Russo, Chief Technology Officer at Akridge, talked about how he practiced his “green pitch” on his elementary school kids under the assumption that if his kids could understand the value of taking something old and combining it with something new, than the average CEO shouldn’t have too much trouble embracing the concept of sustainability within their organization.

With all of the different ways that folks are becoming greener, from the zero waste movement, to climate legislation battling through a maze of opposition, to new green EPEAT rankings for IT equipment, where does a green IT solution fit it? Give us a call. We’d be happy to talk with you about it!

The Washington Business Journal has announced Community IT Innovators as one of the finalists for the Washington Business Journal Green Business Awards. The award winners will be announced at the Green Business Summit on Oct. 13, 2009. We were nominated for our focus on reducing energy usage. CITI realized a 21% reduction its carbon emissions within 1 year of taking action on some key activities which included implementing server virtualization, desktop power management, and employee participation.

At the Green Business Summit there will be companies from all over the Greater Washington area that are working to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices into their businesses and community work.  There will also be a trade show showcasing sustainable products, services, and practices as well as breakout sessions featuring experts from all aspects of green business.

The Sustainable Business Network of Washington (SBNOW) hosted a Certifiably Green event on July 20th where Community IT Innovators along with the recently certified Washington Gas Holdings and AARP presented case studies on our green certification experiences.  The presentations were shared with 40 participating companies and organizations interested in learning more about the green certification program offered through SBNOW.  CITI’s case study described how the company obtained impact through reducing its energy consumption.  We realized a 21% reduction in our carbon emissions within 1 year of taking action on some key activities which included implementing server virtualization, desktop power management, and employee participation.

SBNOW has now completed the pilot phase of its green certification program and has successfully certified several businesses and organizations, including the offices of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District (BID).  The certification program “was developed to help office-based and retail businesses move further on the path to sustainability, and to recognize them for their efforts as well as provide third-party validation that they are doing what they claim to be doing.”   A complete list of names and star ratings achieved by these green leaders will be announced at SBNOW’s public launch celebration in early September.  Companies and organizations that have made the commitment to be certified will also be recognized and included in SBNOW’s media promotion, establishing or building their reputation as environmental leaders in the community.

Organizations interested in pursuing green certification can contact SBNOW.  The organization is offering  a special price to the first 50 companies/organizations that sign up.  For more information see the SBNOW website, or contact Wendy Walter, the Executive Director of SBNOW at  greenguide@sbnow.org, tel: 707-888-1385.

CITI partnered with the William James Foundation on Thursday, July 9th to present a seminar on Green IT.  Nate Solloway, CITI Systems Engineer, discussed what it really means to go green with your technology, including environmentally-friendly practices such as virtualization, green procurement and computer disposal, and desktop power management.  Some highlights:

• Server Virtualization remains a hot topic and is fast becoming just the way things are done, particularly with servers, as the resource efficiency gained is significant.

• Desktop virtualization is the next step that can be taken. Replacing a desktop with a virtual desktop and thin client can significantly reduce power consumption to just a small fraction of previous consumption for each virtual desktop user.

• Desktop Power Management software can significantly reduce power consumption for users who cannot easily switch to a virtual desktop.

• Reusing or donating old computers that are nearing the end of their life cycle, but still usable, can further reduce the environmental impact of your equipment.

Contact us to find out more about our Green IT Assessments and implementing the above suggestions.

I got a timed power strip for home, to plug in my wireless router, the cable modem, and some other accessories that really don’t need to be running all the time. We also use them here at CITI to turn off printers and the like overnight. Both CITI and I bought this Westek from Amazon, but there are certainly other brands and sources.

I’m also hoping this extends the life of this new router, which would mean a triple payoff — green benefits, saving on electricity, and extending the life of the device.

Happy Earth Day! Community IT Innovators has always been a green company, and we’ve recently extended our commitment to being a triple bottom line, sustainable business.

As an IT company, we’ve been saving clients (and ourselves) money and energy with green IT innovations, such as virtualization and desktop power management.  We’ve also been invited to several green IT speaking engagements, including a green tech event this week hosted by SBNOW.

Our commitment to being green extends beyond our service offerings to the way we operate our company.   Here are a just a few of our sustainability practices:

• Signs are posted above taps and light switches reminding employees to conserve energy and water.
• Recycling centers provide convenient places for recycling small electronics, cardboard, paper, plastic, and cans.
• A bike loan program makes it easy for employees to purchase a bike for a carbon-free commute to work.
• Our cleaning products and soaps are all-natural and safe for the environment.
• The thermostat is programmed at 68° in the winter and 75° in the summer to conserve energy.

The Sustainable Business Network of Washington (SBNOW) is hosting an event on “Green Tech/Clean Tech” featuring panels on renewable energy and green technology.  CITI Systems Engineer Nate Solloway will be part of the panel on clean technology, speaking on green IT practices.

Nate has been a leading innovator on CITI’s green technology services. CITI offers green IT assessments to help you reduce both the energy use and financial cost of your network infrastructure.

The SBNOW event takes place on Thursday, April 23rd from 6 to 9 pm. Register here to learn more about how sustainable technology is saving the planet and saving organizations money.

When it came time to plan our latest network upgrade at Community IT Innovators we opted to virtualize all our server infrastructure.   As a typical 60 person organization we have file, mail, database, web and remote access servers.  With our systems and software going through the usual 3-5 year replacement cycle, our IT staff was looking for a solution provided the most flexibility going forward.   Virtualization provided the benefits of a smaller server room footprint and a smaller carbon footprint.

We began exploring virtualizing servers when troubleshooting existing installations with performance monitoring tools.  We were consistently surprised by what a small percentage of the processor these hulking servers were using most of the day.  Large in footprint and small in efficiency,  we began exploring products that would allow us to consolidate the need of keeping operating systems separate but on a shared piece of hardware.

Virtualizing the standalone servers on our server room proved to be consistent with the Green IT guidelines that are starting to trickle down to even the smallest organizations.  CDW’s data centers studied the effects of virtualizing servers and power consumption.  A standalone server had 75% percent of the carbon footprint of a mid-sized automobile.    The same functionality virtualized and then sharing hardware had a carbon footprint of 1/6 of the original with no loss in delivering services.

Reduced carbon footprint is nice for the environment and the bottom line.  Most network administrators don’t see the power bills, but I bet most accountants at organizations would like to see that cost reduced.

Virtualization has proven a boon to network administration as well.  Hardware conflicts are few because each virtualized instance has identical hardware.  Virtualizing also reduces fear of applying patches.  Each server is just a file that is easy enough to copy or track the changes of.  If a service pack or update creates problem, reverting to the previous night is just a mouse click away.

Our virtualized infrastructure has created a flexibility for our developers.  If they need a new server stood up to test a configuration no hardware has to be purchased and we can copy an existing setup.  Our testing and lab has now also standardized on virtualized instances.  Our staff is able to stand up the latest products in minutes rather than hours.

Virtualization is a panacea that has solved a number of administrative and technical hurdles for us.  We’ll be continuing to blog about virtualization in coming weeks.  If you’ve heard the buzzwords and been curious we’ll be walking you through setting up your first virtualized server and familiarizing you with the technology.  Virtualization is one of the easiest new technologies to grasp once the initial hurdle is jumped.