Green IT moves beyond the hype

Green IT systems have moved past the stage of marketing hype and are a genuine business imperative for many firms, according to a major new European survey which found that almost half of large UK IT departments now have a green IT strategy in place.

The survey of more than 450 Western European firms, each boasting more than 1,000 staff and at least one datacentre, was carried out by analyst firm IDC and found that IT departments in the UK and Germany had the most progressive attitude to addressing environmental issues with 46 per cent and 51 per cent respectively already claiming to have a green IT strategy in place.

The survey also revealed few signs that the trend is slowing down, with a further quarter of the 74 UK firms polled claiming they plan to implement a green IT strategy in the next two years.

James Quarles, director of sales and marketing at Dell, which commissioned the survey, argued the economic down turn was unlikely to affect green IT programmes. He said that as energy efficiency projects, such as server consolidation programmes and PC turn off software rollouts, delivered significant cost savings alongside any reduction in associated carbon emissions they would continue to attract interest from cash-strapped IT departments.

"Projects that deliver near-term returns on investment will accelerate even in recessionary times," he said, adding that at the zenith of the financial crisis this summer Dell had secured a major storage consolidation project boasting significant carbon saving credentials from a large financial institution on the grounds that it would also deliver cost savings.

"You can cost justify most hardware refreshes in 18 months because of the lower energy use and improved power management of the latest machines," he explained.

Nathaniel Martinez, lead analyst at IDC, was slightly less upbeat about the short term outlook, claiming that green IT projects that delivered longer or less clear cut returns on investment could be affected by shrinking IT budgets. But he agreed that green IT was emerging as a top priority for cost-conscious IT departments, noting that the survey found that two thirds of firms undertaking a green IT strategy expected to see cost savings within a year.

"There has been a lot of hype around green IT, but it has now emerged as a business imperative for many firms, particularly in the UK," he said.

However, while growing numbers of IT directors are committed to deploying green technologies, the survey also revealed that relatively few are embracing best practices as they do so.

For example, almost two thirds of the UK IT departments surveyed did not report annually on how much power they use, making it almost impossible for them to gauge the success of their energy saving programmes.

Similarly, while 40 per cent of respondents claimed to have a goal to cut the carbon footprint of their IT operations, only 16 per cent had calculated a target as to how deep that cut should be.

Martinez warned that unless more firms begin to assess precisely how much energy their IT estates are using they will be unable to verify whether or not their green IT strategies are working. "You need to measure energy use if you want to improve," he said. "If you are investing in green IT and want it to have an effect, then you have to invest in energy measurement tools as well."