While nations may be still dithering about
green policy at the legislative level, the corporate world, it would seem, has taken its own initiative to go green. A new survey conducted by research group Ovum (
News -
Alert) has found that almost three-quarters of chief information officers in Britain have deployed some level of green IT within their companies. An additional eight percent have indicated that they plan to do so by the end of next year, said
Ovum. Ovum's research also found that the number of organizations using green IT grew to 73 percent in the second half of 2010, which is up from 68 percent in the first half of last year.
Green IT is generally comprised of solutions to help save energy: newer, more power-spare blade servers, better use of servers to consolidate machines, power management software, natural cooling of servers rather than heavy use of air-conditioning, policies that require turning off monitors and computers at night, and even shutting down less-frequently used servers overnight or over weekends, and a reduction in paper use.
Ovum attributed the rise in interest in green IT to shrinking tech budgets that require companies to make more out of less. During a slow economy, companies tend to scrutinize their IT purchases more and choose products that involve faster return on investment...something greener solutions can be good at.
“This growth in green IT penetration reflects a change of attitude by CIOs and other IT decision-makers. Previously, they considered green IT optional because they defined its value primarily in terms of corporate image, rather than the bottom line,” said Ovum analyst Rhonda Ascierto. “It is now viewed as a core technology that that delivers business value by cutting costs and increasing efficiency.”
“We believe this change has occurred because of constrained IT budgets and a sluggish global economy in the wake of the recession, which forced organizations to scrutinize spending on all types of IT. Many CIOs have for the first time had to calculate a financial return on investment of green IT,” continued Ascierto.
Ovum expects that all areas of green IT will experience growth in penetration over the next several years, particularly data center virtualization.
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Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Tracey's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
