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Green IT is moving beyond power and cooling
Green IT is moving beyond power and cooling
By John R. Phelps, Research VP at Gartner | Jun 3, 2010
Electronic-polling results gathered at Gartner's 2009 Data Center Conference show that green IT initiatives continue to be important to data center managers. Initiatives other than those dealing with power and cooling efficiency now exceed 50% of the responses.
The key findings from the survey:
- Green IT initiatives are growing beyond just power and cooling efficiency.
- Even in a tough economic climate, interest in green IT continues to increase.
- Many green IT initiatives that appear easy to implement (such as green-printing practices and the safe disposal of e-waste) are being conducted by 40% or fewer of the respondents.
- Although the tracking and reporting of green IT initiatives is growing, most is more ad hoc than formal.
In 2008, we observed a steep rise in interest in green IT, mainly associated with power and cooling. This was fueled by rising power costs, the shrinking availability of power and environmental concerns. In 2009, green IT initiatives had expanded into areas other than just power and cooling efficiencies.
The major increase in interest occurred during 2008. The results for 2009 show continued interest, with the main change a slight shift of emphasis into the medium-interest levels.
This could be attributed partly to the slightly different set of respondents; partly to the economic problems of 2009, when many companies cut back on new initiatives; and partly to a growth in interest beyond just power and cooling initiatives. However, the bottom line is that green IT initiatives continue to be important to I&O managers.
In 2009, we saw a significant growth in green IT initiatives. Those who responded “no green IT initiatives” dropped from 31% in 2008 to only 18%. The most interesting result shows that this growth was for green IT initiatives that were not associated with power and cooling — the "power and cooling only" response stayed the same as 2008 at 31% and the "more than just power and cooling" rose above the 50% level.
This indicates that companies are increasing their commitment to environmental performance.
