If your company hasn’t invested in green IT initiatives yet, consider this: In a recent survey by Info-Tech Research Group Ltd. commissioned by IBM Corp., respondents said 65 per cent of green IT projects met or exceeded the goals set for them.
The white paper, Green IT: Why Mid-Size Companies Are Investing Now, is based on an online survey of 1,047 IT and business professionals from companies with 100 to 1,000 employees worldwide. In addition, 20 respondents were interviewed in depth about their green IT initiatives.
The report covers 11 green IT initiatives in four broad categories: Virtualization and consolidation, energy efficiency, travel reduction and asset disposal. For all 11 initiatives, cost savings through decreased power and consumables use, decreased future investment and credits and rebates from utilities and government were the driving factors.
“It’s not that we’re tree-huggers,” one interviewee told Info-Tech, “but we’re interested in saving money as well as consumption and emissions.”
Among the most popular and successful green IT initiatives:
* Storage consolidation. About 25 per cent of the companies surveyed had completed some form or storage consolidation or virtualization, and another 50 per cent were planning to do so in the next 12 months.
* Remote conferencing and telecommuting. Decreased fuel consumption from car and plane trips, decreased travel costs, access to remote talent and employee demand were the drivers behind these initiatives. More than three quarters of the firms that had created initiatives in this area said they’d met or exceeded cost savings targets.
The common thread: These initiatives render an immediate cost-reduction benefit along with a a reduced environmental footprint. One CTO said the $17,000 purchase of a teleconferencing system paid for itself by eliminating the travel and hotel costs for a single meeting.
The full list of initiatives covered in the white paper includes server virtualization and consolidation, storage consolidation, desktop virtualization, existing server room upgrades, new server room builds, IT energy measurement, PC power management, printer consolidation, remote conferencing and telecommuting projects, and IT equipment recycling.