Green IT not a buying priority, Gartner said by Carol Wilson

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Sep 29 2009) Construction , Power and Cooling , Cloud Computing

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   A new Gartner Group study shows that environmental concerns are not driving IT purchasing, despite the fact those concerns are a top priority. In the latest Gartner study, two-thirds of respondents see energy management as the most important environmental challenge facing them over the next 18 months, but only seven percent see green procurement as a top priority.

   The reason, Rakesh Kumar, research vice-president at the firm, said in a press release, is that IT managers are more focused on internal projects such as consolidating and rationalizing data center resources and virtualizing servers, than on buying more energy-efficient servers or energy management tools.

   “This finding is further affirmed in client conversations which reveal that, although the green IT and data centre energy issue has been on the agenda for some time now, many managers feel that they have to deal with more-immediate concerns before focusing attention on their suppliers’ products,” said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. “In other words, even if more energy efficient servers or energy management tools were available, data centre and IT managers are far more interested in internal projects like consolidation, rationalisation and virtualisation.” 

   That’s news that has to be discouraging to the technology companies making those new servers or tools, but it also makes perfect sense in this economy. It will be far easier for IT managers to gain approval at the corporate level for “green” projects that involve cost reductions through more efficient use of existing resources, than for major new expenses with a payback down the road.

   The same survey said the two-thirds of respondents expect to face capacity issues over the next 18 months and that 15% will be building new data centers next year as they are already at capacity. Those expansion facilities represent the best opportunities for more energy-efficient gear.

   Gartner is pushing data center managers to do a better job of measuring their energy usage and to consider some basic measures, such as turning the data center thermostat up to 75 degrees to conserve energy.  

   
   

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