Green IT? Not anytime soon, but you have to start somewhere

I honestly believe the world will change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with daily lives being disrupted like never before for my generation and those that will follow. I don’t want to dwell too much on the virus in this blog, but it’s fair to say it’s devastated lives, families and the global economy as a whole. It is a truly awful disease and my heart goes out to everyone who has suffered.

However, I try to be as positive as possible and I have noticed that the air around me seems much fresher, the sky is vivid blue more often, my garden is full of beautiful wildlife and the rivers and lakes close to my house seem to be sparking clear. And the thing is, unless you're a member of the fake news, anti-science society, then it’s clear that high levels of pollution and man-made climate change poses a huge threat to human existence. We, the humans have caused this and it’s down to us to do something.  For me the pandemic has firmly cemented this idea for me.

Now before you all start calling me some kind of hippie or bohemian, I am by no means perfect. But over the last few years, thanks to a fair bit of interest and research, I've become acutely aware of such things, so at home every light is now based on LED technology, I know exactly which solar panels I want fitted and I can reel off the specs of most of the currently available home batteries. I no longer spend hours looking at those thumping eight-cylinder Ford Mustangs and instead spend far too much time on the Tesla configurators instead. Times are indeed a’changing and I need to continue to change with it.

This personal interest extends into my field of IT and cloud computing. Now, let me be crystal clear - IT will never, ever be green and the ongoing onslaught of continual improvement and uptake in technology means it never can, not without a total game changing revolution of technology which is, at this point, impossible.  Batteries are manufactured using precious minerals and metals, mined in some of the world’s most dangerous and exploited areas, IT data centres use a colossal amount of power and even the large cloud computing providers like Microsoft, Amazon and Google who can invest in designing optimal infrastructure and computer hardware used by their cloud computing services are still largely powered by fossil fuels.

This is changing though. Microsoft are on track to shift 100% of all power sources to renewable energy by 2025 and become carbon negative by 2030. Google claim to have been carbon neutral for over a decade and are looking to be able to run their datacentres using renewable energy 24/7/365 and Amazon claim that in 2018 they ran their datacentres for 50% of the time using wind and solar power. You can debate the various reasons for them doing this until the cows come home, but we’re now at a point where renewable energy is cheaper to produce than fossil fuels so that’s one reason why these behemoths are increasingly using them, as it lowers their operating costs and gives them a competitive advantage. Batteries are now being made with less cobalt too, thanks to non-stop development.

I’m a firm believer that if you want to be as green as is currently possible using technology, then cloud computing is the way to go. I just hope that once the new-normal is established and whatever that entails, we can keep the clearer skies and make faster progress.

COVID-19 and Mindset

We are in “unprecedented times”. We keep hearing it. It doesn’t make it any easier. But what does it all mean? 

All our routines are completely out of kilter! Even if you’re still working as ‘normal’, and I use the term normal loosely, everything around you will have changed. Are you finding you’re up having later nights, later mornings? Drinking more? Drinking less? Kids at home? Are you at home or are you stuck somewhere? Are you working? Are you furloughed? Had you even heard that term before March 2020, because I know I hadn’t!? Some people are loving the social isolation, it allows them to catch up with some much-needed reading and rest, others like myself, find some days easier than others.  And shopping.  So much online shopping. And it seems I’m not the only one. Online retailers are competing for our ever-depleting cash, offering sale after sale, whilst traditional high street stores continue to suffer. 

And how is COVID-19 affecting us mentally? Have you been paying attention to your mental health or the mental health of those in isolation with you? Perhaps you have no choice but to go about your day pretty much unchanged if you’re a key worker? Are you social distancing?  Remember, take care of yourself and adhere to the advice: Wash your hands, stay 2 meters away and hand sanitise when you can, and try and only go out when you need to. As someone living with a lung condition from birth, this places a huge burden on my wife so there’s always that feeling of guilt to manage too!

Technology has proven itself to be essential during this time. We are all using video conferencing such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom, having video chats (or having socially distanced virtual House Parties involving booze…..the less said about that the better) to keep sane but remember there are loads of resources online to help us all through these strange times too. Mind is an excellent library of online resources for helping us stay focused and improve our approach to the ongoing situation.  Similarly, the NHS has a bank of resources to help combat anxiety and stress, and if you want to change the mindset from fear to challenge, The Conversation has an excellent piece by Prof. Bethany Teachman on how to see COVID-19 as a challenge rather than a fearsome mindset.

The advice is plentiful but where to look, who to trust and in an age where we must question and scrutinize our media, who do we listen to and who do we trust?  Of all the advice available, some things keep repeating.

Try and stick to routines, try and do things that make you smile. Whether that means learning something new, developing new skills or finally getting through that boxset on Netflix it’s all good, deal with the situation as you know best and don’t kick yourself if you’re having a bad day, or week. Stay as healthy as you can remembering that means physical and mental health as much as possible and make a list of all the good things you want to do when we are out of lockdown. Because we will be out of lockdown, the world may be quite different afterwards, but I’ve got some thoughts on that in a future blog.

Customer Service, Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots

Can you see it in the email below? Maybe look a bit closer?

I recently made some changes in our Microsoft Partner programme and received this email a short while later. It took me a few glances, but there it is….

….‘Automated Solution Assistant’. Kristin Meyer is in fact, a bot.

We’re about to head into times where the use of Artificial Intelligence will become the norm, but in reality its been used by banks and larger organisations for a while. What will change is the rapid and increasing adoption in the customer services sector as the technology gets better and better, and more easily accessible to smaller businesses thanks to cloud computing. We’re almost at the point where its nigh on impossible to tell whether you’re interacting with a human or a well-engineered piece of software.

The use of chat-bots is expected to explode through 2020. I’m even involved in a business who can do just that because it’s great for smaller sellers and businesses in increasing customer satisfaction, offering a customised experience and aiding retention. Essentially, it's helping to automate the customer service role (to a point).

What I don’t know or have answers to, is at what point does this technology get so good where it can (in-theory) replace the majority of customer services roles in huge businesses, like customer service call-centres? Business will always look to reduce operating costs so as technology gets better, what effects will it have on employees and looking at the bigger picture, socially?

As we move into times where automation becomes a driving factor and is more heavily adopted using technology, what overall challenges do you envisage because I’m very interested to hear your thoughts?