Green IT winning favour with CIOs: Survey

Select results of Ovum's Green IT Deployments survey (Australian respondents).

Organisations using 'Green' IT has increased 5 per cent during the second half of last year with nearly three-quarters of CIOs having deployed more environmentally sustainable products and services, according to a new survey.

Interest in Green IT is also continuing to grow with an additional 8 per cent planning to deploy some form of it by the end of 2012.

Research firm Ovum surveyed 500 CIOs and IT decision makers during the second half of 2010 from Europe, the US, Middle East and Australia.

The Australian sample size was 43 CIOs from small and mid-sized organisations.

[See the latest Green IT feature in CIO, How Green is my Cloud?, for an insight into the energy efficiency of Cloud computing]

According to the survey, the number of organisations using green IT grew to 73 per cent in the second half of 2010, up from some 68 per cent in the first half. The reasons for this include tight IT budgets and a sluggish economy forcing IT decision makers to scrutinise spending and realise any potential cost savings Green IT can deliver.

In Australia, Green IT penetration is being driven by the anticipated carbon emissions reduction legislation. CIOs seem to be preparing for the eventuality of greater legislative pressure and plan to aggressively embrace green IT in the next couple of years, according to Ovum.

Rhonda Ascierto, Ovum analyst and author of a new report, Green IT Deployments Across Key Global Markets, said the growth in Green IT penetration reflects a change of attitude by CIOs.

“Previously, they considered Green IT optional because they defined its value primarily in terms of corporate image, rather than the bottom line,” Ascierto said.

“It is now viewed as a core technology that that delivers business value by cutting costs and increasing efficiency. We believe this change has occurred because of constrained IT budgets and a sluggish global economy in the wake of the recession, which forced organisations to scrutinise spending on all types of IT. Many CIOs have for the first time had to calculate a financial return on investment of Green IT.”

The survey asked CIOs about five major categories of Green IT: data centre virtualisation, data centre power and cooling technologies, desktop virtualisation, printing and paper usage management, and power management tools for PCs and monitors.

While all will experience growth over the next couple of years, data centre virtualisation has the greatest penetration, with 52 per cent of CIOs surveyed saying they use it. According to Ovum, this figure will grow to 80 per cent by 2013.

Follow Rodney Gedda on Twitter: @rodneygedda

Follow CIO Australia on Twitter: @CIO_Australia

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