Firms are failing to curb theirdata centre energy consumptiondespite
their own concerns.
A survey of firms by the
Business Performance Management (BPM) Forum shows that despite
showing concern for
making data centre operations more environmentally sound, few
firms have any specific plans in place.
The survey shows that 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, data centre energy consumption
continues to rise, and nearly half of IT managers surveyed say
their organisations have run out of energy resources within the
recent past.
The "Lean
& Green - Reducing IT Energy Drain for Business Gain" was
conducted by the BPM Forum and sponsored by network storage
provider BlueArc.
The study assesses issues and opportunities presented by green
computing and ways to address accelerating energy and performance
demands and perceived waste in the data centre.
The findings are based on the responses from more than 150 IT
professionals in an online survey.
According to the study findings:
- Three-quarters of respondents gave their organizations a "C"
grade or worse in their ability to control IT energy
consumption.
- Almost two-thirds of respondents have no specific green plans
in place for the data centre.
- Nearly 20% spend more than £500,000 a year on IT energy
consumption, and 8% spend more than £5m.
- Nearly 20% set goals of 5% of energy reduction or less, and
almost two-thirds had set goals of a 25% reduction or less.
- But almost half of those polled said IT energy consumption
increased in their organisation last year, even as the cost of
energy rose.
- 46% of respondents reported that they had run out of space,
power or cooling capacity.