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Servers are about as efficient as the human brain, and that's not a good thing. "Most servers are utilized at only about 10 percent," says Tom Bittman, a vp for Gartner, who says the global market for X86 servers is about $23 billion yearly - a lot of money for servers that mostly twiddle their thumbs. Even worse, a server's energy and space footprint is agnostic to its utilization. "Even if I'm utilizing 5 percent, I'm still almost using full power," Bittman says.
April 1
While discussing the backgrounds of the professionals that make up his team, Wells Fargo's Puon Penn is also listing the broad skill set required to tap a new frontier in innovation, one in which technology drives a reset in how energy is used and managed, meeting both emerging environmental standards and the profit motive.
"We have nuclear engineers, former high school math teachers, people who work in public policy and commercial bankers," says Penn, who is Wells Fargo's senior vice president and head of the National CleanTech & Emerging Tech Markets sector at the bank.
The two-year old unit, which has 13 employees and works closely with about 30 other professionals in IT and other bank business lines, is responsible for spotting opportunities
But the unit also operates as a consultant of sorts, bringing lessons learned form Wells own experience in building and adopting green IT, from server virtualization to automated staff communications that reduce travel.
Penn this week spoke with BTN about how the bank melds its own experience in new energy-saving tech with the services it provides to new clients.
BTN: Why does Wells Fargo separate green tech from other corporate finance?
Penn: We have been targeting that sector for some time, but as our base and interest in green IT grew, the bank determined we needed a separate group to address some of these issues.
BTN: You mentioned the diverse background of your team. What is your background, and what got you interested in green technology?
Penn: I've been with the bank for 14 years and have done a variety of things, working with international clients, agricultural lending, investing in high yield securities and tech lending. And before that I worked in management consulting. I got interested in green technology because it's what our customers are dealing with. It's an inevitability that firms will have to adopt green IT, as we are doing here at Wells. The U.S. and the world have to make a shift to a new type of infrastructure and I want to be involved in that.
BTN: What role does Wells Fargo's own green IT initiative play in your work with clients and prospects?
Penn: Our approach is divided into two parts. Internally, the bank is working toward a goal of reducing emissions by 20 percent by 2018. There are a lot of internal things that we doing that are part of that, such as use of IT, policies, etc. Externally, we are also working with customers to help them to figure out to grow their green IT. It's here where we can deliver our own expertise.
BTN: What does Wells Fargo face in terms of
Penn: We're a very large user of energy. We occupy over 100,000 square feet of office space at this location alone, plus we have offices and branches. So we're a big buyer of energy. Part of what we do is figuring out how to [develop] the efficient technology and a strategy to use energy more efficiently, to finding the right suppliers that have sound energy policy. These are experiences that we have, in building these policies and procedures at the bank, that we can bring to other firms.
BTN: How does Wells' experience with tech that
Penn: We have experience in looking at processes to see how they can be changed, where it makes sense and doesn't make sense (to deploy new server optimization technology).
BTN: How have corporate attitudes toward green strategy and using technology to reduce carbon footprints changed over the past couple of years?
Penn: A few years ago, many people where thinking about clean tech as a social responsibility issue. But today, I don't know too many people who are using energy management or reduction technology from just a green purpose. They are looking for savings from green tech…the process that firms go through allows them to find and reduce waste in the supply chain and to cut down on overall emissions and expense.
BTN: Where do emerging tech delivery tools such as cloud computing fit in with energy policy?
Penn: The IT delivery revolution is converging with the energy revolution, and they are enforcing each other. We're moving toward a decentralized energy infrasctructure [which enables energy to be delivered more accurately based on need]. There is also a move toward an IT web-based infrastructure that allows [better provisioning] of tech resources. That can lead toward a smart energy grid transformation, in which we won't need gigantic power panels as much. Energy use will be much more distributed and delivered in a more tech enabled way.
