Sixty-three per cent of Indian IT organisations have deployed green server rooms to increase energy efficiency or have a pilot project underway, according to a joint study by IBM and the InfoTech Research Group. Even in a very difficult economic environment, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India are eager to actively invest in initiatives that reduce the environmental impact of their information technology, the study notes.
The findings show that more than 55 per cent of Indian companies are going to, or have already commissioned third-party environmental audits, purchased emission credits, or made improvements in their supply chain efficiency to reduce energy consumption. Almost two-thirds of all companies globally are currently, or are planning within the next 12 months, to add virtualisation technology to their servers, consolidate storage systems, or retrofit their server rooms.
The study is based on a survey of more than 1,000 information technology executives at companies with between 100 and 1,000 employees across industries and in a dozen countries, including India, United States, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
“Businesses around the world have discovered that going green isn’t just good for the planet, it’s good for their bottom line,” said Ramesh Narasimhan, director — general business, IBM India/South Asia. “The findings highlight how midsize companies are realising cost savings when adopting green IT initiatives.” The driving factor pushing companies to adopt green IT to reduce costs while reducing the negative impact on the environment is an obvious additional benefit, Narasimhan said.
The study found companies typically fall into one of four IT personalities: green advocates, smart spenders, green observers and green seekers.
Green advocates are companies that integrate environmental considerations into all areas of their business, and made up about 25 per cent of the companies surveyed. Smart spenders constituted 38 per cent of the survey group and are defined as SMBs willing to make upfront investments to achieve long-term cost reductions.
Green observers, who made up 30 per cent of the survey group, did not have specific environmental goals and needed management support for initiatives to improve energy efficiency. Green seekers, at 7 per cent, were interested in adopting energy efficient technology but unsure of where to start and how to quantify results.
Saving electricity requires the measurement of IT electrical consumption, something many companies cannot do. However, the survey found that more than 50 per cent of companies have implemented some form of energy measurement for their IT infrastructure, while about one-quarter plan to do so in the year ahead.
About 60 per cent of the total respondents weighed the importance placed on business benefits against environmental benefits, suggesting that IT initiatives to help improve energy efficiency must yield financial returns in order to see greater adoption.
