It was late on a warm New England night as I headed home from a seminar I had attended. My car's tank was nearly empty and I stopped for gas. The price at the gas pump was almost $4 a gallon for regular unleaded. I thought to myself this is the second time this week I have had to fill this tank up. As I got back into my car and listened to the radio, there was a discussion on the current gas prices.
Some people believe the price of gas will only get much worse, while others believe this is a just the market going crazy and it will eventually burst. Some people used the example of the tulip and bulb craze that happened in Holland from 1634-1637 or the more recent Internet .com bubble we are all more familiar with - that it’s just a matter of time before it bursts and gas prices go back to normal. I on the other hand just recently purchased a new car and think to myself what a fool I was for not buying the hybrid version. Think of the ROI I would have with the current price of gas. No matter what - even if it's true and the bubble will burst, it is still going to hurt a lot before it does.
This chain of events got me doing a lot of thinking - as I am sure it has a lot of other people thinking: What can I do to “go green"? I keep thinking to myself: What can I do to make a difference? Is it possible for database administrators to do their jobs in such a way, that they are going green? I am the CEO of Ntirety; our entire business is database administration. The big question on my mind: What does it mean to “go green” as a database administrator?
Given that fact we are 100-percent focused on database administration, is it even possible to go green? I am looking for thoughts, ideas and suggestions on how to go green as a database administrator.
As I thought about my business, I started to come up with ways we could go green. As a company, we handle databases remotely all over the world for lots of different companies. We have built an infrastructure that allows us to work completely remote. So in one sense we are "going green” because our database administrators do not need to drive into the office every day and pay $4 a gallon for gas to do their jobs.
DBA Go Green Suggestion 1: Set up your infrastructure so you can work remotely in a safe and secure manner. Eliminating the need to go into the office to fix things that could be done remotely.
Many times when I was working as a consultant for a company’s database, the organization would have a power failure. The server and databases would not come up cleanly after the power failure. Has this ever happened to you? I bet it has. So an easy way to go green is to make sure all your servers and databases come up cleanly after a reboot. Not only will you be going green, but also you will be able to get a good night's sleep and not get woken up on something you could have avoided.
DBA Go Green Suggestion 2: Set up procedure so the database automatically restarts itself upon a power failure or server reboot. This will prevent you getting having to deal with it - which means a trip into the office, or other activities that will waste time and energy.
How many times have you seen reports printed that the users never looked at? Far too many times in my career. The worst case I ever saw of this was when I worked for a company where we had a report printed for a user every week, which took seven-plus boxes of green-bar paper.
I guess even back in the 1980s I was a “go green” database administrator. When I posed the question, “who needed a report every week that was seven boxes thick?” I was surprised by what I learned. What the user really needed was a report on the end of a very large batch job. The actual report the user needed was only 10 pages long. Since it was part of a larger batch stream, to get it, they ran the whole batch stream. Has this happened in your shop?
DBA Go Green Suggestion 3: Eliminate unnecessary paperwork. If it can be done electronically, do it that way.
How many DBAs have multiple screens on their desks? This is so the database administrator can watch the progress of what is happening on the various systems. Do you really need to watch all those screens? Do they remember to shut them off when they leave? We have to change the way we do things, so we are more energy-savvy. Otherwise, who knows how much gas will be a gallon.
DBA GO Green Suggestion 4: If you are not using a piece of equipment, shut it off.
No one likes gas when it’s over $4 a gallon. We need to find smarter and better ways to do things. When my kids are home from college, my electrical bill for the house doubles from all the lights they leave on. By getting them to shut off unnecessary lights, it makes a huge difference.
What is clear to me is that we can all make a difference if we just stop and think about how we do things and try to find better ways to do them. When you have an idea on how a database administrator can go green, please share it. As I am sent ideas, I will post them on my blog, located at michaelcorey.ntirety.com. You are also free to comment and share the idea directly. No one likes the current price of gas. If you have an idea that you think makes sense, then share it. What I realize is, it is possible to be a “Go Green DBA.”
About the Author
Michael Corey, founder and CEO of Ntirety, a company that specializes in remote database administration, is an original Oracle Press author, a past president of the Independent Oracle Users Group and helped found the Professional Association of SQL Server. Corey is a member of the Massachusetts Robert H. Goddard Council for STEM.
