By Sam Greengard
Over the last several years, green IT has evolved from anovelty into a core business component. Organizations are discovering thatcutting energy costs and creating a more eco-friendly environment saves dollarsand makes sense.
According to CDW’s ?2012Energy Efficient IT Report,? the field is advancing rapidly in termsof both adoption and level of sophistication. The study found that 43 percentof respondents now identify green initiatives as a top driver for data centerconsolidation?up from 34 percent two year ago. In fact, 32 percent of new datacenter purchasing is green. This is defined as systems that are energyefficient, water efficient, bio-based, and environmentally advantageous ornon-ozone depleting.
More importantly, these green solutions are payingdividends. The report, based on a survey of 760 IT professionals, found that 75percent of respondents with a program in place to manage data center powerdemands have trimmed IT energy costs.
Server virtualization and cloud computing are at the centerof this trend. Sixty-two percent of respondents indicated that cloud computingoffers an energy-efficient approach to data center consolidation?up from 47percent in 2010.
"Like any other aspect of IT, energy efficiency in thedata center is a multilayer stack of solutions working together, and allavailable solutions deserve consideration," said Norm Lillis, vicepresident of systems solutions at CDW. ?The combination that makes the mostsense will vary with the unique environment in a data center.?
Overall, the most common green solutions include:virtualized servers or storage (65 percent); server consolidation (60 percent);low-power/low-wattage processors (46 percent); Energy Star qualifying devices(44 percent); power-efficient networking equipment (31 percent); andenergy-efficient/load-shedding uninterruptible power supplies (28 percent).
What?s the roadblock to further adoption? IT executives saythey need better measurement tools to assess energy usage, as well as potentialsavings resulting from investments. Only 8 percent of respondents report thatthey find it easy to estimate or quantify energy use or savings based onmanufacturers? specs.
IT can play its part, Lillis says, by engaging in ongoing"conversations with upper management about energy efficiency and datacenter optimization strategies."
