Is Green IT Dead?

10:55 AM -- I know this is politically incorrect, but is Green IT going to wither up? The concept seems to have been put on the backburner at many of the user sites I frequent. There are two key issues driving this. The first is decreasing or flattening IT budgets, and the second is the continual decline in energy prices.

In many cases it costs money to go green, and the return on that power-efficiency investment takes time -- in some cases a long time. What we're hearing from customers is "Give me an ROI now." Savings from power alone takes too long for the payback, especially if energy prices continue to decline.

Most of the Instant ROI type of solutions -- server virtualization and storage optimization (backup and primary) -- typically gain that quick ROI because they delay or eliminate future purchases. As part of that process these manufacturers will also declare themselves as green. I like to call them "greener," especially in storage. While I have seen server virtualization projects actually cause the powering off and displacement of older servers, I have yet to see someone implement a storage optimization project (de-duplication, compression, archive) and actually turn off shelves of storage.

Turning off shelves of storage would typically require a complete rearchitecting of what data is written to what shelves. As I mentioned before, what these storage optimization-technologies do is delay future purchases, in some cases by years. Maybe there is a software opportunity here to have a storage application that will automatically remap your arrays to free up shelves that you could then turn off.

ROI Now is realized in data centers that were on the verge of buying more storage or servers. Faced with these facts, should green initiatives within companies continue? Part of that depends on what your organization's motivations were for Green IT. Was it to save money or to save the planet? Or was it to look good while saying you were trying to save the planet? If your organization was truly in the wanted-to-save-the-planet crowd, it seems likely that your Green IT initiatives can continue, albeit more modestly.If your organization is in the save-money or going-green-because-it-looks-good crowd, there is the temptation to stop altogether and focus on ROI-Now type of projects. Given the economic and power cost realities of recent months vs. those same realities about six months ago, there is a need for balance. Let's face it, in about a year or two or three, we will be complaining about the high costs of energy and arguing about whether or not we should drill in Alaska.

As you make new technology decisions, green-ness or, more appropriately, power efficiency should still be factored into that decision. If you can structure your ROI Now project to do more than just delay future purchases but actually power off some of your current assets then do so. Future purchases should provide power efficiencies around continued consolidation and improved allocation of the technology asset.

€” George Crump is founder of Storage Switzerland , which provides strategic consulting and analysis to storage users, suppliers, and integrators. Prior to Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one of the nation's largest integrators.