Although most organisations now want green IT equipment,
very few actually measure IT-related energy spend.
A survey of 60 private and public sector organisations,
undertaken by network equipment firm
Extreme Networks and
parter
Data
Integration, found that 64% cited green IT as a requirement
when purchasing new IT equipment.
But the survey also found that only 20% of respondents actively
measure IT-related energy spend.
"It is important that businesses measure IT-related energy spend
to measure carbon footprint reductions, instead of doing green IT
for the sake of it," said Extreme.
The survey found that 49% of organisations cited reduced
operational costs as the main driver for greening IT operations. In
addition, 78% said they recycle their IT equipment.
"The green issue is important in today's society, especially for
organisations looking to reduce their carbon footprint," said Paul
Phillips, Extreme Networks regional director for the UK and
Ireland. "The fact that 78% of organisations recycle their IT
equipment suggests that there is a high level of awareness of the
WEEE regulations that were introduced at the beginning of
2007.
"However, it is essential that businesses measure the amount of
electricity required for powering and cooling their IT systems.
Currently only a fifth of businesses do this, and it is as
important to measure the success of green IT initiatives, rather
than going green just for the sake of it."
Extreme Networks recommends organisations that are looking to
reduce their network's power consumption to:
- Procure Ethernet switching products that consume less
power
- Design networks to use less power
- Intelligently optimise power to edge ports and connected
devices
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