Green IT Certification Program

The MSPAlliance (MSPA) recognizes the need for a Green IT standard for the managed services community.  With 7000 members worldwide, the MSPA is the world’s largest professional association and accrediting body for the Managed Services Industry.  The MSPA leadership team and committee members have organized to develop a set of standards for MSP’s and their clients to achieve Green IT Certification.

At the core of this program is the standard for which MSP’s use to deliver IT services.  The overall philosophy of the MSP should be to reduce their own carbon footprint by implementing best practices that reduce power consumption and the use of natural resources.  This can be accomplished by implementing the following:

• Use of remote management & monitoring of client networks to reduce truck rolls
• Data centers that utilize alternative power sources
• Procurement of hardware that is low in power consumption “Energy Star”
• Implementation of virtualization technologies for servers and desktops
• Power management best practices for client networks by utilizing remote management tool sets like vPro technology
• Recommend and implement cloud computing technologies to reduce the number of client premise equipment
• Offer hosted applications and services to leverage data center infrastructure
• Provide technology “refresh” services to clients to retire older hardware

In order for a MSP to achieve the MSPA Green IT Certification certain minimum requirements are needed.  These requirements include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Must be an accredited member of the MSPA
• Must be in good standing with the MSPA and abide by the MSPA code of ethics
• 50% of clients must be managed remotely
• On-site remediation services not to exceed 10% of total services revenue
• 50% of trouble tickets performed remotely
• Proof of server and/or desktop virtualization implementations
• Data center power saving best practices
  • Alternative energy sources
  • Server virtualization
  • Adoption of alternative data center cooling practices
• Must be able to demonstrate adoption of energy saving practices at client sites

Once a MSP achieves the MSPA Green IT Certification, they can then nominate their clients to receive a similar “Green Seal of Acceptance” for their managed networks.  This certification is the second component of the MSPA’s vision for Green IT implementations across the world.

In order for a client to become Green IT Certified, they will need to meet the following minimum requirements:

• Engaged in a Managed Services Agreement with a Green Certified MSP
• 75% of hardware resources should be energy star rated or have power saving management capabilities
• Multiple servers to be virtualized where applicable
• Encourages remote workforce by implementing secure remote access to network resources