Server Consolidation Cuts Council's Power Consumption

Council has cut server and power costs, improved system availability and our ability to recover from an IT disaster, and decreased the pressure on floor space through virtualisation and server consolidation.

Virtualisation is the ability to run multiple operating systems on a single server. The number of physical servers can therefore be reduced by consolidation.

Database administrator Ian Honeysett said Council has been able to stem the expansion of the number of physical servers and keep spending on servers to a minimum.

“We also want to reduce emissions, by reducing server power and cooling costs.” Ian said.

“One of the major Key Result Areas for my job is business continuity, minimising interruptions to IT services, and virtualisation will drastically reduce the time it takes to get computer systems up and running after any major IT disaster.”

Ian said tasks like server upgrades and patching are much easier since the consolidation.

The first phase of the project involved replacing a block of 14 servers with two high level Dell PE2950s. The old servers - a combination of Dell PE650 and PE2650 - were still operating effectively, but they were five years old and warranties were no longer available on the systems.

“There was enough budget to replace each server, but research found server consolidation was by far the best long term option,” he said.

Council's extensive server fleet runs 108 applications. Future plans around greening IT at Council include the use of virtualisation technologies out at the desk top.

For more information on Council's greenhouse gas abatement initiatives click here.

NSW Climate Change Summit

Have your Say on Climate Change

Climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges to face humanity. It is an issue of local, national and global significance affecting every Australian. How we respond today will have far reaching implications in our lifetimes, and those of our future generations.

With climate change now firmly on the agenda of all levels of government, we must determine: How should we prepare for the impacts of climate change? What is the most appropriate course of action?

Penrith City Council has joined with the Nature Conservation Council of NSW and 16 other NSW councils to gain community input into how we address this critical issue.

Randomly selected community members will be invited to attend a two day forum to explore the issue of climate change and develop recommendations for Council and the NSW State Government. Following the local forum, participants will be invited to attend the NSW Climate Summit to be held in February 2009.

At the NSW Climate Summit, community representatives from across NSW will join with a broad range of stakeholders to discuss and debate how to best address climate change. By finding common ground, summit participants will produce a set of recommendations to present to the NSW Government which are reflective of a NSW consensus view.

Penrith residents are encouraged to participate in this important project. In addition to the local forum, Penrith City Council is encouraging residents to have their voice heard by making comment either via the Council website or at one of the displays located throughout the City, Council recognises the importance of the values, concerns, opinions and expertise of our community, and the need to consider these in our decision making and planning processes.

Climate change affects us all. By working together, we can address this issue. This project will enable our communities to be included in deliberations that directly contribute to climate change decision making at both a local and state level. Giving the community a stronger voice in decision making processes, and enabling action on climate change to be more reflective of community views.

For further information on this project visit www.nccnsw.org.au/nswclimatesummit or contact Bernadette Riad at Penrith City Council on 4732 7629

This project is coordinated by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.
This project has been assisted by the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust.

WHY DO YOUNG CHILDREN NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

There is a great article on Early Childhood Australia web site http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ discussing the pros and cons of talking to children about climate change and whether this would be a frightening topic for children.

The article argues that it is irresponsible not to share information about how climate change may affect the lives of young children both now and in the future. We would also be missing an opportunity to help them learn how their actions can impact on the future of the planet. We can do this in a way that uses play and is not designed to make children anxious or depressed about their world. No doom and gloom approach should be used but rather a positive approach about how they as individuals can help their planet.

The best approach is to work with families, because they are the prime role model for their children; and with the children to enables them to learn through hands-on, concrete experiences how they can care for their world.

“A play approach to sustainability may involve, for example, children saving drinking water after meal-times to place on the garden; or it may include setting up a miniature compost bin in the home-corner kitchen so children can role-play putting scraps in the bin (as well as placing real food scraps in an actual compost bin).”[1]

Learning about sustainability can begin with very young children staff can role model and communicate what they are doing to children so that children learn e.g. simple comments like “lets put the tissue in the bin so it is safe and doesn’t end up as rubbish in the playground” can start sewing the seeds in children of a better way to behave to help the planet. From these simple beginnings of communicating with children to working with children on projects in the centres is just a short step. There are a myriad of centre based activities and projects children can be involved in as well as moving towards involving children in local and nation wide projects like “Clean up Australia Day”. The community and nation wide projects are ideal activities for school aged children to be involved in and through the children and their enthusiasm we can involve families which may well change some attitudes in adults.

By involving children in sustainability we are opening up their world to a range of knowledge e.g. science, technology, geography and social studies. There is also the benefit of assisting children to develop habits and attitudes that will last them a life time.

Submitted by: Joanna Pickford

[1] Source: Early Childhood Australia. 2008. Why do young people need to kknow about climage change. Early Childhood Austalia. Available from: http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/resource_themes/sustainability_global_warming_and_climate_change/why_do_young_children_need_to_know_about_climate_change.html