Green security and UTM.

Can security be green? Well yes. I think so. It is a question that Bill Brenner raised this week. But are ecologic concerns regarding carbon footprints, energy waste, and hazardous material a primary decision criteria in selecting security products? Except for government mandated requirements I do not think so.

The EMEA regulation, dubbed ROHS, that seeks to limit the amount of hazardous waste in IT equipment sold in EMEA is one such government mandate. From the official ROHS website:

The RoHS Directive stands for "the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment". This Directive bans the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.

While a burden that adds costs to equipment sold in EMEA there is no arguing with the fact that this has had a green impact on manufacturers, many of whom simplify their processes by shipping ROHS compliant equipment worldwide, not just to EMEA.

Is power consumption a driver in the security industry? Not yet. Battling the new threats is still the order of the day. Rarely would two vendors products be so close in function, price, licensing scheme, and support, for power consumption to be the factor that wins the day.

Granted though, there is one aspect of the security industry that you could argue has had green fallout. That is the much vaunted UTM space. Unified Threat Management, as narrowly defined by IDC, is the combination of Firewall VPN and Antivirus in one platform. In practice there are devices that go way beyond that and also incorporate routing, switching, IPS, SSL VPN, and URL filtering. (Note to my blogging friends that I am foregoing this opportunity to plug my former employer). By accomplishing all of these functions on one platform that takes up as much space and energy as a single function device users benefit from reduced rack space, reduced energy consumption, and less heat generation. While the primary driver for UTM deployments are the cost savings realized by vendor consolidation, much lower capital expenditure, simpler management, less training, and fewer personnel, there are also cost savings from lower energy bills and lower rack space rental fees.

One final green aspect that transcends security gear is an overall trend for newer generation hardware to use more efficient chips and components and thus just about any well designed network gear coming out of innovative companies has a green edge on the incumbents. I heard this week of one IT department that projected a cost savings of $184,000 over three years just by replacing legacy Catalyst switches with Extreme Networks' gear. (See Tolly Group Report)

So yes, not directly, but indirectly, there are considerable green elements to the security equation.