Questioning the Reality of Green IT Initiatives

By Mary Jander, September 19, 2007, NOON

Each week brings news of some fresh "green IT" initiative. This week's item: The Green Grid has allied itself with the U.S. Department of Energy and started several European work groups.

The bulletin fits the trend in "green IT" news, which currently focuses mainly on group efforts with unclear objectives. A few storage suppliers laid claim to energy savings in various thinly veiled advertisements for their wares a few months back, but they've since backed off. (See Big Blue Launches Big Green, HP Maps Greener Data Center, and Copan Pushes Power Savings.)

Don't get me wrong: Energy savings and the green data center are imperative priorities. And there is much expertise available to help out. It's also true that saving energy is the most politically correct cause to emerge in IT since... well, ever. It plays into everything that's potentially noble in corporate culture. But like world hunger, it's an issue that's easy for opportunists to abuse.

If it were otherwise, we'd surely see solid results in balance with all the green talk. Instead, results of a survey from ONStor released this week suggest a growing energy crisis in many data centers.Of 369 IT decision makers surveyed, ONStor reports that 63 percent reported running out of space, power, or cooling capacity without warning. A full 43 percent reported they could stay in their current infrastructure for just six months to a year if nothing changed. And, while half of respondents would go along with green initiatives if they could save money, less than half of that group have really done anything about it.

Of course, ONStor has its axe to grind. But at least it's not doing so in the survey statement, which indicates that energy consumption is growing, not shrinking. And more needs to be done about it than pleasant pandering.

There are encouraging signs. In the U.S., Copan and IBM were among the first to register with an energy rebate program sponsored by California's Pacific Gas and Electric Co. In this case, real savings are resulting all around, thanks to an incentive that's linked to more than a soft-dollar bid for attention.

At Byte and Switch, we're turning away briefings about so-called energy initiatives that aren't based on solid tactics like collaboration with the power company. We think that's the only appropriate response to marketing pitches dressed up as energy claims.

On the other hand, we're eager to hear about ways that customers in the trenches have actually made progress in reducing power and cooling, for either storage or other data center gear. If you've got a story to tell, we want to hear from you.0