* Are you ready to support your company's green IT strategy with actionable plans?
A recent worldwide survey commissioned by Symantec says that “going green” is now an essential strategy for most enterprise IT organizations. Ninety-seven percent of the responding companies are in the process of developing or have already implemented a green IT strategy. Are you ready to support your company’s strategy with actionable plans?
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.
Symantec’s green IT report reveals a couple of other key findings:
* Green IT budgets are rising.
* IT is willing to pay a premium for energy efficient equipment.
* IT is at the heart of enterprise green efforts.
* Green IT initiatives are more of a priority than ever before.
Seventy-two percent of the respondents expect to see their IT budgets increase over the next year in order to implement their green IT strategies. Even during the current economic crisis — in which companies are slashing operational costs everywhere they can — these same companies are willing to spend money now to save even more money in the long run.
The proof is the report’s statements that 64% of companies said that they would pay at least 10% more for a more energy efficient product of equivalent functionality. One third would be willing to pay at least 20% more.” This suggests that energy efficiency has now become an important evaluation criterion when acquiring new IT equipment. (Contrast this to the Network World November 2007 survey, in which 51% of the respondents said they don’t consider energy efficiency in IT product evaluations.)
If the power usage of your data center is not your concern, perhaps it soon will be. The Symantec report points out that “responsibility for electricity in the data center now falls predominantly on IT. Eighty-one percent of IT departments are either responsible or cross-charged for electricity.” This makes a lot of sense. The respondents in this survey report their companies are spending somewhere between $14 million and $20 million a year on data center electricity. Perhaps in simpler times the facilities department paid the electric bill without question, but in today’s economic hard times, IT departments need to know the intricacies of, and be accountable for, their electricity tab. (In the Network World 2007 survey, 68% of respondents said they were not responsible for power bills related to their data center’s IT equipment, and only 21% had established an ongoing dialogue between IT staff and facilities management personnel.)
Obviously, green IT is a growing concern for IT executives at large companies. Read the Symantec 2009 Worldwide Green IT Report to understand your executives’ attitudes. Then go back and reread the Network World special issue on data center power to get actionable ideas on what you can do to go green.
