of companies are either still talking about what
58%
they were going to do regarding their green
initiatives, or still have no plans as yet to do
anything
that storage consolidation would be a central element of their green
policy. While an even more upbeat Gartner survey found that 92 per believed environmental factors are important in
cent of respondents had a data centre consolidation planned for, in
85%
planning IT operations, but...
progress or completed.
Storage consolidation is really important, although equally essential
to reducing energy consumption is ensuring companies have
streamlined their applications and data. Duplicated data and
applications is a major problem in many organisations and these
cause a range of operational inefficiencies, including demand for
25%
only around 25 per cent had written green
criteria into their purchasing processes
more storage space. Most companies know that at the data and
applications levels they are far from efficient, but the problem has
been that the risk, cost and time to consolidate applications has
put them off. Celona (celona.com) recently conducted a survey This point is underlined by BT’s Steve O’Donnell who comments that
amongst telecoms executives and 59 per cent said they’d been to date One IT has enabled BT to decommission and consolidate
so discouraged by an application migration that they decided not more than 1000 racks of servers, resulting in a net saving of 22GW
to go ahead with it. The new generation of migration technology hours per year. “We calculate this translates to a cost saving of just
overcomes these problems, making the long-awaited benefits of under £1.8 million per annum or around 3,110 metric tonnes of
application consolidation a reality. carbon per year,” says O’Donnell.
Many vendors have cottoned on to the fact The company is using its supply chain to drive
that there is a sea change in the air, and change by incorporating environmental
this is not the oceanic smell of green and efficiency goals into its procurement
altruism – there is a distinct whiff process. It expects suppliers
of hard business reality about it. to work to reduce the energy
“Environmental sentiment is all consumption and impact of each
well and good, and it helps that new generation of products or
environmental issues currently services, and this will become a
enjoy a high media profile, mandatory criterion in all tender
but few companies have adjudication. Donna Young,
the financial freedom to go BT’s head of Climate Change,
green overnight” says Simon notes that the extended supply
Sherrington. “They simply chain is a powerful force for
can’t justify decommissioning positive change. “About three
equipment unless there is a clear years ago our large business
cost benefit in terms of saved customers started coming to
opex, or unless the kit is becoming us and asking about our carbon
obsolete anyway. That is why status. They understand the need
companies with comparatively high to drive efficiency down their own
energy costs, and companies in markets supply chains. The power of the supply
with high rates of technology obsolescence, chain, and of competition, to drive this sort of
have been swifter out of the blocks than peers in change should not be underestimated.”
other industry sectors.”
What’s clear is that green IT, like other efficiency drives, will go through
This view is backed up by findings from the Corporate iT Forum a number of phases and the precise strategy adopted will depend
survey, whose members said that making a business case on the individual circumstances of your business. Low-hanging
for green IT was difficult. Around 69 per cent said that cost fruit such as switching off unused equipment will be early targets,
efficiency was key to implementing green policies and 51 per but as the enterprise becomes more efficient it will have to delve
cent had used such initiatives as a means of saving money. deeper to find further efficiencies. In the data centre this will start with
BT is in the category described by Simon Sherrington as being server consolidation and storage maximisation, but will move on to
typical early adopters of green IT. It is a major energy consumer and application and data optimisation.
operates in a highly competitive market. It has already cut its carbon
emissions by 60 per cent since 1996, saving more than one million
Do not be fooled by the green label: many green policies are often
tonnes of CO2 per annum. This drive extends from data centres to
indistinguishable from other efficiency drives and will result in a lower
applications-level consolidation. BT’s One IT consolidation project,
cost base and a mitigation of risk. The main difference is that when
and similar projects in other large operators, is all about delivering
you put the green badge on them you also gain the potential of some
business benefits. There are huge opportunities within large Telco’s
very useful PR. n
to consolidate IT infrastructure and thereby enhance efficiency, which
should deliver the ability to bring new services to market more quickly,
Celona’s survey was conducted in May 2007 amongst 212 telecoms IT professionals
(see www.celona.com). ONstor’s survey was conducted across 440 companies
but also savings in terms of both cash and carbon. between July and August 2007 (see www.onstor.com).
17 | ecoexecutive
Acumen Business.indd 17 18/4/08 15:20:32
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