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Ian Kilpatrick, chairman Wick Hill Group: Can IT Security Be ’Green’?

May 2008 by Ian Kilpatrick, chairman Wick Hill Group

As far as ’green’ computing is concerned, the IT industry does not have a particularly good record. In the past, it has been poor in a whole
range of ’green’ areas, including power consumption, the use of toxic
substances, over-packaging, air conditioning and product life cycle.

However, customer demand is now causing ’green’ issues to become
increasingly important in IT. Companies are looking more and more at
implementing ’green’ policies, both in their use of IT systems and in
the design, manufacture and disposal of computer equipment. Those
responsible for securing IT networks are also beginning to look at
whether the solutions they choose live up to ’green’ principles.
The first step is to look at suppliers and their approach to ’green’
policies. Typically, a ’green’ supplier would implement ’green’ issues
throughout the company and in product design and manufacture.
Does the supplier create designs that reduce materials usage and waste,
minimise packaging, increase recyclability, lengthen life cycles, and
minimise energy consumption, in all aspects of distribution and
operation? Are the company’s products designed to comply with specific
environmental directives and legislation?

IT security staff might also consider the use of UTMs as a ’green’
component of their security. According to IDC, the minimum requirement
for a UTM is a firewall, VPN, antivirus and intrusion
detection/prevention. UTMs have, however, evolved from this to
incorporate additional capabilities which can include URL filtering,
spam blocking and spyware protection, as well as centralised management,
monitoring, and logging capabilities.

UTMs integrate several security functions into one single appliance and
this fact alone could qualify them to be ’green’. One single UTM
appliance can replace up to five or six separate security appliances or
servers. So a single UTM appliance saves space in the office and
significantly reduces power consumption.

This reduction in the power needed is felt both in the rack and in the
air conditioning necessary to cool multiple products. Indeed, in smaller
organisations, it can completely remove the necessity for 24x7,
year-round air conditioning.

A UTM could also be considered ’green’ if it can easily upgrade to add
more functionality and performance, such as solutions from companies
like WatchGuard and Check Point. These facilities would allow the UTM
to grow and change with a company’s needs, rather than having to be
wastefully ditched when it fails to cope with a burgeoning business.

The ability to increase performance and function is particularly
relevant for companies with less than 200 users, where it is often
difficult to predict traffic volumes, usage patterns, or indeed numbers
of users, more than a year ahead.

Other ’green’ considerations, when looking at security solutions, are
recycling, disposal and whether or not the solution contains toxic
substances. There are two legal requirements which cover these areas.
The first is WEEE, the European Community directive on waste electrical
and electronic equipment and the second is the RoHS Directive.

WEEE sets collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types of
electrical goods, including computer equipment. The RoHS directive
restricts the use of certain substances (lead, mercury, cadmium,
hexavalent chromium and two flame retardants - PBB and PBDE) in
electrical and electronic products sold in the European Union after July
1, 2006.

Computer equipment purchasers should be aware that there are companies
which, for manufacturing reasons, were granted RoHS exempt status rather
than RoHS compliant status, and you should be careful you choose
solutions with the ’compliant’ label.

Considering and implementing ’green’ issues is increasingly important in
IT and IT security is no exception. Choosing suppliers who implement
’green’ policies, considering solutions such as UTMs, and selecting
products which conform to WEEE and the RoHS directive are all ways in
which IT security can be ’greener.’


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