Green IT efforts apparently have not been spared the curse of the silo in the enterprise. Green IT experts I spoke to recently said it’s not so much that green technology is lacking for businesses to make their green IT strategies a reality. What the customer does with the green technology once they’ve procured it is half the story.
One issue is manageability. Often, individual green projects across an enterprise are not being integrated in a holistic manner so that the full value of green technology can be reaped. Going green in the data centre for instance is often siloed from green initiatives in facilities management. Or, buying a new fleet of thin clients to replace traditional power-consumptive PCs is not the end of the road. The next step is to properly manage these thin clients throughout their entire lifecycle by introducing policies for turning off machines at night.
But it’s not all the customers’ fault that their green IT strategies are not being thoroughly exercised. Tools are lacking to measure and monitor progress so businesses can actually know how they’re doing and vet their behaviour accordingly. Enterprises can buy all the green technology they want and even properly manage it, but if they can’t measure their performance the green business case just won’t stand a chance.
Follow Kathleen Lau on Twitter: @KathleenLau
