Green IT causing data centre confusion

The majority of organisations (70 per cent) are adopting green initiatives, but almost a third are unsure how their actions will impact data centre efficiency and are wary of vendor marketing messages, according to new research published today.

The Aperture Research Institute (ARI) study of more than 100 data centre professionals found 19 per cent of those with a green initiative admitted it did not include the data centre, while 13 per cent did not know whether it did or not.

Steve Yellen, ARI's principal, said: "Our study found that many organisations are adopting a green initiative, but some have left alarming gaps as far as the data centre is concerned."

Of those that did have a clear on the impact of green IT in the data centre, the most popular initiatives were cooling (named by 44 per cent), server virtualisation or consolidation (27 per cent) and the use of more power-efficient equipment (24 per cent). Only one respondent suggested powering off unused CPUs.

"Some commentators have suggested that the IT industry is responsible for more carbon emissions than aviation and it is time for the IT industry to start taking its responsibilities seriously," added Yellen.

But the survey also found data centre professionals don't necessarily see the industry as taking its responsibilities seriously, given its finding that data centre managers do not trust the environmental claims that vendors are increasingly attaching to products and services.

The survey said most respondents are calling for more energy efficient equipment to be invented, bought by their organisations and then installed in their data centres.

But 26 per cent dismissed green IT marketing claims as hype and 42 per cent said they had no way to validate the claims.

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