Driving Sustainability in Solutions: The Cisco-Computacenter Partnership

Co-Authored by Julie Greene, Cisco Business Development Director, Computacenter

Globally, we’re witnessing a surge in interest and initiatives focused on sustainability. Organizations worldwide are reaching out, striving to address energy and resource consumption challenges.  In response, Cisco and Computacenter, a Cisco Environmental Sustainability Specialized partner, have teamed up to assist our mutual customers in advancing their sustainability objectives.

For starters, Computacenter has achieved being Carbon Neutral for FY2022, with over 85% of Scope 1 & 2 emissions reduced since 2015 and the residual emissions for 2022 offset. They will now look to maintain this in future years, with reducing the need for offsetting as they continue to drive down emissions across their business. Also, Computacenter has been approved for near and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets by the Sciences Based Target Initiative (SBTi) and they have also verified that Computacenter is on target to achieving net-zero by 2040. It is essential to emphasize that establishing this goal marks an incredible achievement—a truly exciting milestone.

In parallel, Cisco has already been setting and achieving greenhouse gas reduction goals for over 15 years. We continually assess our progress and maintain accountability.

We strive to make it easier to collaborate, create better scale and enable best practice sharing with our partners around the world, through a framework that provides resources, tools and assets. As an example, Partnering for Purpose, an initiative launched at Cisco’s Partner Summit in November 2022, accelerates the collective positive impact that Cisco, our partners, customers, and suppliers can have on the planet and in our communities around the world. We’re also proud to share that in Cisco fiscal year 2024 we plan to come to market with offers across our services portfolio that have been designed with sustainability in mind, focusing on four key areas – Sustainability in Data Center, Smart Buildings and Workspaces, Internet of the Future, and Industry Solutions and Ecosystems.

Prioritizing purposeful refreshes

We’re also advocating for “purposeful refreshes” when technology is reaching the end of its support cycle to take advantage of Cisco’s significant product advancements in sustainability. Cisco’s efforts to embedour   circular design principles and sustainability into the design of our products, from packaging to energy consumption, positions Cisco as an industry leader. Cisco is also working to develop solutions and architectures designed with sustainability in mind, benefiting both ComputaCenter and our customers. Cisco’s proactive stance supports customers in advancing their sustainability goals.

Transforming to purposeful refresh migration with UCB

As an example, for years Computacenter has been in the business of infrastructure refreshes, motivated by the pursuit of newer, improved, and faster hardware. That said, we are now in the process of shifting gears towards more purposeful refreshes, where sustainability takes the driver’s seat in guiding our refresh initiatives.

UCB — a global biopharma company based in Europe — began an infrastructure refresh motivated by power consumption considerations. Computacenter compared the power consumption of the company’s existing hardware deployed in over 40 countries — including remote switching, wireless access points (APs), and Data Center hardware — versus migrating to new hardware. The migration included Day-0 onboarding for devices, removing the need for IT personnel to manually provision and configure hardware, reducing the risk of human error.

What did we uncover? Well, it’s quite the twist in the tale. Initially, it seemed like the new hardware we were proposing would consume less power compared to the existing deployment, however, the new solution had higher power consumption, capacity and port density.

But here’s where the plot takes a turn. By deploying Cisco DNA Center and DNA Spaces integrated with Computacenter’s Asset Intelligence portal, this integration allowed our customers to monitor and manage their hardware across their global network more closely. This enabled them to optimize power usage, reallocating power during certain times of the day.

The result? By gaining better control over their equipment through improved monitoring capabilities, our customer reduced its overall global energy consumption, thanks to the deployment of that new hardware. Now, that’s what I call a power move!

Our UCB Global Infrastructure and Services teams have found that Computacenter is a true visionary partner with a team of leaders who believe in making the world a better place. Computacenter’s approach to transforming IT has proven for a more sustainable future and should be an example for any corporation to work with them. Thank you Computacenter for helping make the world breath again!   
—Joris Van Brussel, Director eConnectivity

Leveraging Cisco open APIs

Expanding on Computacenter’s sustainability efforts, it’s worth highlighting that understanding our customers and addressing their unique requirements is paramount. While Cisco continually drives innovation, it’s often Cisco’s trusted partners like Computacenter who are on the front lines, tackling intricate challenges such as sustainability objectives on behalf of our customers. This is where Cisco Services APIs play a pivotal role, enabling partners and customers to seamlessly access and utilize Cisco data in a straightforward, secure, and scalable manner.

Consider, for instance, the collaborative efforts of Computacenter and Cisco through the integration of Cisco’s APIs into Computacenter’s Asset Intelligence Portal Smart HUB. This integration enables precise identification of an organization’s install base. These initiatives align with Cisco Solutions, encompassing the utilization of Nexus Dashboard, Webex, and DNA Spaces. These transformative solutions extend beyond mere optimization; they are strategically designed to enhance operational intelligence. Whether the goal is to develop intelligent building systems or construct innovative hybrid work solutions, Computacenter remains at the forefront, with environmental sustainability integrated into our approach.

We all must do our part to reduce energy consumption

Not a day goes by without more negative news around climate change. A question we all face is how can we as individuals make a difference? How can I contribute to help mitigate climate change?

If you work in IT, you can make a difference, and Cisco and Computacenter are partnering to help you make that difference. In fact, there are very tangible things we can do to reduce the energy consumption of the equipment we deploy to help run our businesses on our net zero journeys.

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