Less than a quarter of UK businesses believe a
datacentre consolidation strategy could lower their carbon
emissions. AnEconomist
Intelligence Unit survey of 213 chief information
officerin large businesses with more than
1,000 staff found that UK CIOs were behind their US counterparts.
Only 23% of UK CIOs believed a green policy could drive datacentre
consolidation compared with 50% in North America.
The study also found that 20% of UK IT directors believed
virtualisation would be the most effective means of going green,
compared with 30% in North America.
Overall, 68% of CIOs said their organisations did not offset
carbon emmission and only 10% of CIOs surveyed said that
environmental issues were managed by the IT department.
IBM said that despite the current sense that little progress is
being made, the IT function is well placed when it comes to
reducing its environmental impact. IBM noted that by adopting
existing energy efficiency methodologies and technologies,
corporate servers and data centres could cut power use from current
efficiency trends by 56% by 2011, according to the EPA. For the US
alone, this would reduce projected electricity costs from some
£15bn to £8.5bn, providing a cost-saving incentive and delivering a
reduction in future CO2 emissions. Beyond the datacentre, simple
initiatives, such as switching off PCs when not in use and
minimising unnecessary printing, can improve an organisation's
green credentials and save money at the same time, IBM said.
IT and the
environment: A new item on the CIO's agenda?