Despite stated concerns and priorities for making datacenter operations more environmentally sound, few IT organizations have any specific plans in place, and most IT managers give their operations failing grades in reducing energy consumption. In the face of rising energy costs and increasing environmental concern over global warming, datacenter energy consumption continues to rise, and nearly half of IT managers surveyed say their organizations have run out of energy resources within the recent past.
These are among the findings of a new study called Lean & Green - Reducing IT Energy Drain for Business Gain, conducted by the Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum and sponsored by BlueArc, a leading high-performance network storage provider. The study assesses issues and opportunities presented by green computing and ways to address accelerating energy and performance demands and perceived waste in the datacenter. The findings reflect responses from more than 150 IT professionals in an online survey completed in February, 2008. A set of interviews with industry and environmental executives complements the study.
According to the study findings:
Three-quarters of respondents gave their organizations a "C grade or worse in ability to control IT energy consumption;
Almost two-thirds of respondents have no specific green plans in place for the datacenter;
Nearly 20 percent of those polled spend more than $1 million per year on IT energy consumption, and 8 percent spend more than $10 million;
Nearly 20 percent of respondents set goals of 5 percent energy reduction or less, and almost two-thirds had set goals of 25 percent reduction or less;
Almost half of those polled said IT energy consumption increased in their organization last year, even as the cost of energy rose;
Forty-six percent of respondents reported that they had run out of space, power or cooling capacity.
"The results of the study point to a gap between what IT leadership knows it needs to do and what it has accomplished to date in terms of environmental responsibility," said Derek Kober, director of the BPM Forum. "In polling the marketplace and talking with industry leaders, we have heard that there are opportunities for those that deliver on the environmental promise to also save substantial costs and drive revenue opportunities through more efficient and enhanced data performance practices."
The Lean and Green - Reducing IT Drain for Better Business Gain executive summary is available on the program site for Lean & Green at http://www.getleanandgreen.org. The full report is available for purchase for US$199.