Green IT - hype or real chance for savings Article

Green IT - hype or real chance for savings - Article Example Global Warming is caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas and large scale deforestation. Burning of fossil fuels releases a large amount of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These gases act as a thick blanket and absorb thermal radiations emitted by the earth’s surface, thereby resulting in the planet to warm up significantly. According to the reports of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global greenhouse gas emissions have grown with an increase in 70% between 1970 and 2004 The increase in temperature is a kind of anomaly in ecosystem and this anomaly will have severe consequences to follow. It will cause severe storms and droughts, glaciers to melt, rising seas, changes in weather pattern and spread of diseases. There will be an increase in the sea level and the low lying islands will left completely devastated. The inhabitants of the cities as well as other vegetation will see a dramatic increase in pests and other insects who will thrive due to an increased temperature, thus leading significantly to unexpected calamities. Loads of animal and plant species will be extinct and the habitat such as coral reefs and alpine meadows will be disheveled. Heat waves, due to global warming, have already caused a loss of 30,000 lives in Europe and 1500 deaths in India, in the year 2003. Therefore we come to a conclusion that change in temperature will have an unbearable impact not only on the human civilization but also on the entire race of different species existent across the globe. These days, most of the industries, including the IT industry is under the scanner of government in order to curb the emission of green house gases. You may be astonished as to how can an IT industry be a contributor in emission of greenhouse gases. The blame goes to the huge data centers and gigantic servers which are used to store the information in such industries. The

Six Sigma Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Six Sigma - Research Paper Example Brief History As a measurement standard, on the one hand, Six Sigma dated back to the 1800s when the German mathematician named Carl Frederick Gauss introduced the notion of normal curve (Islam 17). As a standard in variation, on the other hand, Six Sigma originated in the 1920s when Walter Shewhart, a Bell Telephone Laboratories statistician, proved that the three sigma from the average level are the reference point by which the process in question requires correction (Islam 17). On the other hand of the scale, the history of the praxis of â€Å"Six Sigma† in companies is fairly modern. Its coinage was made only in the 1980s by the Motorola engineer named Bill Smith. According to Islam, Smith is the individual credited in coining such term (17). Smith’s Six Sigma is one of the results from the Motorola’s decision to secure its global leadership. In the same decade, perhaps prior to Smith’s coinage, the executive leaders of the Motorola Company established a four-point plan as a response to Sundry’s â€Å"[o]ur quality stinks† (Barney and McCarty 2). Here, Sundry refers to the feedback expressed by the company’s costumers concerning product quality. ... In the third point plan, one observes that the phrase â€Å"quality improvements† -- probably the early definition of â€Å"Six Sigma† -- is a concept that comes from the principle or theory prominent in TQM. That is to say, Six Sigma in its early inception is not far from similar to TQM in a fundamental manner; the modification only occurs in the TQM’s adaptation or application to the Motorola culture. Definition and Methodology Pande, Neuman, and Cavanagh define the notion of Six Sigma in several ways; they state that Six Sigma is a way, a goal, an approach, and a system (77). First, Six Sigma is essentially a way or method of measuring certain process or processes. This implies that Six Sigma is a technique in which a particular activity or phenomenon (e.g., manufacturing products) is quantitatively measured. Second, Six Sigma is a goal, or has an end, of near perfection, which is quantifiable by 3.4 Defects per Million Opportunities or DPMO (Pande, Neuman, an d Cavanagh 77). As an end, the application of Six Sigma to a specific process or activity largely aims for a 3.4 DPMO; that is to say, for every one million of company products being manufactured, the number of their defects should be within the 3.4 range. Third, Six Sigma is an approach in which the culture of the organization is greatly altered. This definition of Six Sigma is historically grounded; it reminds us of Motorola’s 1980s third point plan -- the function of quality improvements to the company’s culture. Unlike the practice of traditional management, Six Sigma as an approach changes significantly the roles of the members (i.e., top and bottom) of the organization. The functions of leaders and their subordinates are fundamentally modified. Fourth, Six Sigma is