SCC and Cisco for Sustainable IT

How green technology and leading expertise can help you unlock a sustainable future.

The IT sector’s energy consumption rivals entire countries. How can your organisation meet rising sustainability demands and transform these challenges into opportunities?

IT has gained more and more attention in recent years for its high consumption of energy and major contribution towards carbon emissions. The seven million data centres worldwide, for example, consume around the same amount of energy as South Africa.

The environmental impact of IT isn’t just limited to data centres. Alongside digital devices and ICT networks, UN Trade and Development has found that global IT use overall accounts for between 6% and 12% of all electricity use. And as technology advances and its use expands, digital waste rates continue to rise: the same UN research indicated that waste from screens and small IT equipment has risen 30% since 2010.

While all this is going on, expectations for sustainable IT and business are increasing, from legal regulations, the need to protect vulnerable supply chains and the social demands of the public to fight climate change. So in a fast-moving technological landscape, what’s the answer?

What is holding sustainable IT back?

There are several different contributors to poor sustainability: high energy consumption, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and a lack of recycling of electronic waste. Often, organisations don’t consider all of these factors simultaneously, which prevents them taking a coordinated approach and leaves them vulnerable to inflated operational costs, regulatory fines and reputational damage:

• Fragmented response: many organisations address sustainable IT with individual measures that aren’t interconnected and don’t account for the bigger picture. This means the potential for cutting energy use, emissions and costs is much more limited.

• Technical debt and legacy infrastructure: it’s common for organisations to stick with older technology until it breaks in order to maximise value from it. However, this means sticking with inefficient hardware, in productivity, cost and energy terms, that does more harm than good in the long term.
  
• Lack of visibility and reporting: if organisations don’t benchmark and report on their carbon footprint, GHG emissions and energy consumption, they don’t know how much they need to improve, or where improvements should be made.

Building a sustainable future with SCC and Cisco

Cisco is a recognised leader in business IT technology, with a stated aim of reaching net zero across its full value chain by 2040. SCC shares this vision as an approved sustainability partner of Cisco, and as a holder of Cisco’s Environmental Sustainability Specialization. Together, the partnership provides a comprehensive and integrated suite of solutions and services for improving sustainable IT and optimising costs and efficiency on all fronts:

• Cisco Meraki: cloud migration and optimisation can reduce data centre carbon emissions by up to 55%, according to McKinsey. Cisco Meraki’s cloud-based IT solutions and architecture can simplify network management and reduce energy use by focusing on making the network edge more efficient. Furthermore, a powerful remote central management platform can enable provisioning, troubleshooting and remediation, without the emissions impact of IT teams travelling from site to site.
  
• Hardware virtualisation: Cisco virtualisation and unified compute technologies, along with dynamic resource allocation, means on-premise server demand – and therefore energy use – can be substantially reduced. This is enabled by SCC assessment services, Cisco Unified Computing System free trials and promotions, and SCC discounts of up to 9% on legacy servers traded in for recycling.
  
• Free network audit: a combination of SCC expertise and Cisco’s sustainability calculator means you can get personalised recommendations on how to approach a sustainability refresh. We’ll identify under-utilised devices that can be scrapped and recycled, or replaced with newer models, to maximise cost, energy, heat, cooling and emissions efficiency.
  
• Smart buildings: Cisco network technology, designed and deployed by SCC experts to specific organisational needs, can turn ports on and off when not required by a host of IoT devices. This reduces energy use and utility costs, and can be fine-tuned to meet evolving requirements.
  
• Sustainability reporting: customer success and adoption plans can be aligned with sustainability protection, while reporting tools like Cisco Carbon Emissions Insights can demonstrate the value and impact of sustainability measures and progress towards targets.

An expert combination, committed to sustainability

SCC and Cisco have decades of experience working together, and are aligned in their vision for sustainable IT that works in the long-term:

• Aligned sustainability goals: both SCC and Cisco are committed to achieving net zero for greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
  
• Energy-efficient solutions: Cisco hardware and SCC’s design and deployment of energy-efficient data centres contribute to long-term reductions in energy use.
  
• Circular economy and recycling: takeback and recycling programmes from Cisco, and the SCC Recyclea service for recycling, refurbishment and remarketing, all support a green circular economy.
  
• Support for ESG initiatives: a range of tools, processes and sustainable IT practices all contribute to meeting ESG targets and public expectations.
  
• Commitment to GreenOps: SCC and Cisco advocate GreenOps principles across all operations and energy-efficient cloud architectures.
  
• Expert customer support: ongoing help for long-term green IT includes sustainability calculators, network audits and consultancy support.
  
• Technological innovation: SCC and Cisco both innovate with secure, reliable and eco-friendly products, backed by deep sustainability expertise.

All the tech and expertise you need to go greener

When you partner with SCC and Cisco, you’re accessing two sustainable IT leaders that cover all the bases: decades of expertise and experience; a common commitment to sustainability and the circular economy; and top-quality design, implementation, and management of green IT solutions.

Wherever you are on your sustainability journey, and however comprehensive your shift in strategy needs to be, this partnership has all the solutions, services and support you need to build viable sustainability for your organisation in the long-term.

Take the first step towards a long-term sustainable future
Contact the SCC team today and find out how SCC and Cisco can tailor sustainable IT solutions that perfectly complement your organisation’s future.