A recent worldwide survey commissioned by Symantec says that "going green" is now an essential strategy for most enterprise IT organizations.

In March 2009, Applied Research interviewed the IT executives from more than a thousand companies worldwide to provide input to the Symantec 2009 Worldwide Green IT Report. Ninety-seven percent of the 1,052 responding companies acknowledge that they are in the process of developing or have already implemented a green IT strategy. What's more, the majority of enterprises expect to increase their green IT budget over the next twelve months.

Slideshow: What does a real green data center look like?

These results are in stark contrast to a Network World November 2007 survey in which 50% of the responding IT executives said they failed to take even the most obvious steps to reduce IT power consumption -- a major step in green IT.

(There are significant discrepancies in the results of these two green IT surveys which, I believe, can partially be explained by a difference in the responsibilities as well as budget and strategy insight of the various survey respondents. The Applied Research survey interviewed people from companies with 1,000 or more employees; who hold a director, VP/SVP or CIO/CTO title; and who work for an IT department or a department that oversees IT. The Network World survey included "590 Network World readers." While I would never belittle the Network World reader, I suspect that you are a bit deeper in the technology trenches and less involved in budget and strategy planning than a corporate SVP would be. If my assumption is true, then you may not be aware of how pressing the green IT issues have become to your executive management. Read on to learn more.)

Regardless of who the survey respondents were, much has changed in the year and a half between the surveys. 2008 seemed to usher in the confluence of drivers for companies to "go green" in the data center and on the desktop. First came the extreme spike in energy costs, when the price of oil hit record levels and the cost of kilowatts jumped as well. Next came the worldwide financial crisis, which put the spotlight on companies' operational costs. And finally, big business began turning its attention to the environment through efforts to conserve energy and reduce pollution. As a result, for big companies whose IT power bills routinely reach eight figures annually, the IT department is Ground Zero for green initiatives, and you'd better get on board.

Linda Musthaler is a principal analyst with Essential Solutions Corporation.