The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) received 57,264 electronic tax returns on 15 April 2010, – the highest number received a single day for the whole financial year.

 

By the third quarter of this year, IRAS will have completed a major refresh of its data centre technologies that include deployment of an energy-efficient mainframe, servers and storage as well as the use of virtualization of servers. IRAS CIO Tang Wai Yee is confident these steps will lead to reduced carbon footprint and power consumption.

 

The agency has also embarked on a proof-of-concept initiative of In-memory Data Grid (IMDG) to explore how cloud computing in the data center can improve service delivery and bring about even more savings in power consumption.

 

These green IT initiatives were recognized as top sustainable business practices during the inaugural Singapore Sustainability Awards 2010.

 

Awards were presented in two categories – the Green IT Awards and the Outstanding Sustainability Awards.

 

The Green IT Awards, organized jointly by Singapore Business Federation, IBM and the Institute of Technical Education, with Frost & Sullivan as the knowledge partner, feature two categories. They are the “Enterprise Green IT Award” for Singapore-based enterprises including organizations in the public sector, and the “Small & Medium Business Green IT Award” for SMEs.

 

Land Transport Authority (LTA) and IRAS won the Enterprise Green IT Award, while Trusted Hub was the winner for the SME category. Trusted Hub provides document processing that conforms to legal standards such that data and images produced can be recognized as electronic originals and with equal legal weight as compared with paper transaction.

 

The three organizations were chosen from a total 13 participants for their sustainable IT practices and solutions.