Using state-of-the-art technology and saving energy at the same time - is that even possible?
kgs is known for its fast, high-performance archiving solutions.
tia® is also climate-friendly! Lean software and smart development can make a decisive contribution to the resource-saving use of technology. Because tia® not only saves costs, but also energy.
From my point of view, we as kgs have three important tasks to fulfill for our customers: to provide them with the best and most economical solution for their archiving needs, to join them in making technical progress, and - at the top of the agenda for us - to do everything we can to ensure that our eco-balance and that of our customers is significantly optimized by tia®.
Winfried Althaus / CEO at KGS Software GmbH
The green mission
The goal of kgs has always been to provide customers with the fastest and most effective solutions possible. The focus is on the flawless functioning of the modules, but "green" factors have been considered for years. The technical performance of the software is inevitably linked to a positive contribution to a sustainable IT landscape: lean, efficient archiving software can save not only costs, but also valuable resources. Therefore, there is a green light for Green IT at kgs also in the future!
Green IT - a clarification of terms
According to Wikipedia (n.d.), green IT refers to efforts to use information and communications technology (ICT) in an environmentally friendly and resource-conserving way in order to make it usable throughout its entire life cycle. This includes both direct emissions (generated by activities) and indirect emissions (production of electricity, materials, etc.). In technical terms, the term covers issues such as energy and material consumption, pollutants, hardware longevity and software programming. Simply put, it is about optimizing the following processes in terms of climate-friendly consumption: Production, use and disposal.
Green IT also refers to the contribution to environmental protection that can be made through the use of IT. This makes it possible to reduce the energy consumption of a conventional source, e.g. in transport or heating systems. Concrete example: energy is saved by replacing business trips with video conferencing.
Green Goals
Contributions from kgs and tia® for a "green" IT landscape
kgs is green
kgs focuses on low expenditure for computing power and communication to ensure maximum efficiency of the software modules. A climate-friendly approach is also taken to the use of hardware: for example, kgs decided to move to a data center in 2021 in order to switch to a fully virtualized environment. The positive effect: several hundred computers can be used simultaneously, while physically there are only a few. In this way, kgs is making a decisive contribution to saving energy spent on cooling and powering the computers.
In addition to the external measures, kgs is also committed internally to using technology in a way that conserves resources. SSD chips are used as storage media in the company. Compared to conventional hard disks, these offer the advantage that they consume less power in addition to providing higher speeds. Hard disks lead to a permanent load on the power grid due to their spinning mechanics, while chips function in a much more energy-friendly way due to their static operation. The effect is further enhanced by the low use of RAM and CPU.
kgs is committed to green goals as a whole company. For example, there are regular campaigns in which we plant trees for our partners, customers and employees or give away various "goodies" from sustainable and certified stores. Because we know that community, will and personal commitment can change everything, we have also entered the world of the non-profit organization Lemonaid & ChariTea e.V. and become involved in the "Planting Fruit Trees" project.
Our teams work predominantly in a home office - this not only gives them every flexibility, but is also good for the eco-balance. For us, business is about much more than just us.
tia® is green
ECM systems are real "power guzzlers" - operating the overloaded functions inevitably requires a high level of power. tia® stands for lean archiving - there is no need to expend energy on an oversized system.
A major advantage of the tia® modules is their scalability. The hardware used for the servers can therefore be used to determine whether performance or energy savings should be the main focus of archiving. Through individual adaptation, energy consumption can be reduced while the unbeatable performance is maintained.
This refers to an environment in which customers have shared access to servers and programs. In this way, the cloud can be fully utilized and servers automatically regulated - both in online and offline mode. The resource-saving factor here: less computing power and electricity is consumed. At the same time, the focus on the best possible performance is of course maintained.
A distinction is made between "hot storages" with high performance, "cold storages" with medium speed and "glacier storages" with sporadic access. These are controlled by "shift mechanisms" learned from tia® or controlled manually. Depending on the required availability of the documents, power consumption can thus be reduced to zero in some cases.
tia® aims at autonomous archiving. It recognizes patterns itself and thus offers "predictive archiving services". The system learns and differentiates: A legally relevant document is "stored" differently than an everyday note. A document that does not contain a retention period, has not been opened for years, is available twice or three times, is displayed as data garbage to be deleted or - depending on the rule - is deleted directly and automatically.
For our archiving project with kgs, we took a close look at the topic of archive corpses and took the opportunity to identify and delete them. Because there's one thing you mustn't forget: storage doesn't just cost money, it also costs energy. Not least for this reason, you should opt for an intelligent archiving concept.
Khaled Mohmand / Head of ERP Purchasing & Data Warehousing bei Klöckner & Co.
kgs has moved most of its infrastructure to a data center. In addition to the better network connection, this brings the advantage that machines are virtualized. Computers that used to physically heat the server room in the office are now grouped as virtual machines on physical entities in the data center. This saves heat loss from power supplies and spinning hard disks and significantly reduces waste heat.
Maik Wodarz / Senior Software Engineer bei KGS Software GmbH
kgs offers lean archiving which is compatible with the leading ERP system, and which has proven its capacity for integration into our company environment.
Thomas Holzmann / SAP Basis Administrator at Hensoldt AG
Bitkom (2022). Data centers in Germany: Current market developments, as of 2022. https://www.bitkom.org/sites/main/files/2022-02/10.02.22-studie-rechenzentren.pdf [accessed on January 23, 2023]
Naturefund (n.d.). The Internet as a climate killer: The Internet is growing into one of the biggest energy guzzlers. https://www.naturefund.de/wissen/atlas_des_wissens/atlas_der_globalisierung/climate-crisis_und_welternaehrung/klimakiller_internet [accessed on 01/23/2023]
Petereit, D. (2022, April 18). These are the 13 largest data centers in Germany. dr Web. https://www.drweb.de/10-groessten-rechenzentrum-deutschlands/ [accessed on 01/24/2023]
Wikipedia (n.d.). GreenIT. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_IT [accessed on 01/24/2023]
Further information
Links
We have compiled detailed and comprehensible information on our website to help you understand the features of our tia® product suite. Numerous customers have already benefited from our offering.