Green Computing is about 80 percent process, followed by another 20 percent of random product upgrades related to eliminating obsolete equipment that already costs more to own than its worth.

Unfortunately, too many companies have not taken the time to develop a real green plan. A survey by Forrester Research found that 20 percent of the companies polled said they did not have any overall approach to a green computing strategy, while another 35 percent of those surveyed said their company was considering one. The other 45 percent are in some stage of a green computing plan that may take years to play out.

Regardless of the number of carbons saved, green computing today makes more sense than ever because it's about saving green. All over the enterprise there are still plenty of opportunities to consolidate servers and replace printers that over a multiple year period cost more to run than it would to replace them with more efficient systems.

However, in today's economic climate it is hard to make a case based on the need to spend money to save money. So what most IT organizations need to do is start with internal reviews of processes that lean heavily on virtualization to rationalize server and storage systems in the data center, while simultaneously consolidating printers that are literally strewn across the enterprise.

Ultimately, those activities will probably lead to a need to buy new servers and storage systems along with more efficient printers. But before the finance department gets behind that idea, they are going to want to see real evidence of financial progress. Two good places to start are with some server consolidation blueprints from Sun and green printer roadmap from Hewlett-Packard.

Interesting server concepts put forth by Sun beyond the usual reliance on consolidation include:

*Examine the amount of processing power required by an application. Too many applications assume that all hardware resources are always available. In time, developers will learn to write applications that are more event-driven so they essentially wake up the operating system when needed, as opposed to leaving the operating system running when it has nothing to do.

*Push more of the application load to the server. That means installing more thin client systems that consume less power and energy than PCs. The thin clients have the added bonus of being easier to manage.

*Consider new generation of Flash Memory products that are inherently more energy efficient. An example of these products would be the Sun's new line of Amber Road storage products.

*Start planning to move to more energy efficient Ethernet networks that will come with the transition to 10GB Ethernet networks that give network administrators the ability manage the amount of power flowing to a specific network adapter and control the amount of traffic flowing through a specific adapter.

On the printing side of the equation, the suggestions from HP are embodied in a new Green IT Action Plan the company has created. The basic idea behind the guide is to walk customers through a step-by-step green computing assessment plan for their printer assets.

Suggestions from HP include everything from making sure users are printing on both sides of paper to reducing the number of personal printers every employee seems to have tucked away in their office or cubicle. Other recommendations include creating scripts that can remotely turn printers off at night, recycling cartridges, assess the amount of color versus black and white printing to consolidating various output devices by replacing them with multi-function printers.

But before you part with any money for an upgrade, the first thing to remember is that green computing is a state of mind that creates a process, rather than event that creates a transaction. Upgrading systems is definitely a big part of the equation. But if you don't do the process work first, then all your really doing is making a minor contribution to green computing in the form of an upgrade that any vendor out there can help you cost justify. That certainly helps the overall economy, but at the end of the day only has a nominal impact on the environment. If you want to make a real impact, then the first order of green computing business is to change the IT processes and the business workflow.