Making the Switch to green
Given that it's the end of the financial world as we know (and yes I do feel fine - chipper even - put that down to banker-based Schadenfreude), I was expecting to see the number of press releases with "green" in the headline dry up.
It's all about the money baby - well it probably always has been for most "green initiatives" - but given that green also carries the connotation of paying more up front to save in the future (and save the planet possibly), I thought marketeers would be running from the term.
But bless my cotton socks but what should arrive in my in-box but an email from the lovely chaps at D-Link explaining how lovely and cuddly to the environment their new switch is.
Frankly, this may be greenwash but anything that makes the world of switching even vaguely approach the outskirts of interesting has got to be good thing - and the good folks at TechWorld obviously buy it as they gave D-Link an award for the planet-cuddling ways last year.
Along with other green tech makers, D-Link also uses the fact that its products comply with the RoHS and WEEE regulations as evidence of its green credentials - which is just annoying. IT'S THE LAW. Doing something you have to do is not an achievement. The fact their products don't blow up ever day and kill people is great too - but they don't shout about it - why? Cos building products that don't kill people is also the law.
Enough - here's the skinny:
"the second-generation D-Link® 5-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch (DGS-1005D) which provides up to 73% reduced power consumption* without sacrificing network performance."
And furthermore...
D-Link’s Green technology conserves energy by recognising when a port is active or inactive then adjusts its power accordingly, benefiting Home/SOHO users who may not need perpetual use of their computers or the use of all the ports on their switches. It is also capable of altering power usage in relation to the length of its cable, conserving energy use for both the user and the environment without any loss of performance
So there you are. Green it seems is still in - at least in the crazy world of networking hardware.