Green Channel

Green IT is a growing global phenomenon, with customers now seeking out IT vendors whose offerings are more energy-efficient, more material-efficient, less hazardous, designed for greater recyclability, and supported by end-of-life recycling programs, according to IDC's green IT research team.

A study into "Green IT" within Australian and New Zealand organizations reveals that a majority have a strong mandate from the executive to reduce the environmental impact of IT but not that many are offering a budget for IT to achieve this.

Local system builders are being invited to demonstrate their green computing skills - with the winner set to drive away in a Toyota Prius.

It seems that almost all leading organisations in the IT arena are clamouring to establish their green and environmentally friendly credentials -- especially the purchasing of IT products.

Green IT was a major theme at Interop this week, as vendors outbid one another on how well their networking gear could lower power consumption to help save the planet.

It is imperative that businesses quickly recognize the need for environmentally sound behaviors and good business practices to co-exist, Nortel President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Zafirovski said today at FORTUNE's first-ever Brainstorm: GREEN Conference** in Pasadena, Calif.

Spurred by business needs as well as environmental concerns, green IT projects blossomed in datacenters and on desktops throughout the world in 2007.

When the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program was first announced in 2005, media attention centered on two aspects: the US$100 price tag and the humanitarian nature of the project. Three years later, the environmental genius of these award-winning laptops still not only burns bright but even inspires copycats. Vendors such as Asustek and Via are working to bring their own low-cost, low-power computing devices to emerging markets and education.

Fulfilling the demand for broadband to millions of users across the globe takes more than just ingenuity, it takes energy -- lots of it. Accounting for nearly 1 per cent of total power consumption in the UK alone, BT Group was faced with a dilemma: how to scale and roll out new services to take advantage of new market opportunities without overburdening its energy budget -- and the climate.

Thanks to a massive datacenter consolidation, hardware refresh, and creative, energy-efficient facility design, Sun has reduced power capacity demand by 75 per cent at its California datacenter alone, saving US$1.1 million per year in energy costs, while increasing its datacenter processing power more than four times. Overall, Sun estimates that its consolidation efforts will save 4,100 tons of CO2 per year and cut 1 per cent from its total carbon footprint.

Rackspace provides datacentre facilities under a managed hosting scheme. It is building a new UK datacentre and has had a green aspect to its business for about a year and a half. How is that affecting its operations?

Broadly speaking, there are two main reasons for companies to go green. The first is to reduce energy costs, thereby saving the company money. As one IT executive put it to me recently, "Green computing is all about saving greenbacks."

You may very well prefer to postpone the task of refreshing your fleet of desktop systems and monitors, an exercise that can be both expensive and time-consuming. But inevitably, machines break down or your needs change, so you have to bite the bullet.

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