Reducing IT Energy Drain for Business Gain

Reducing IT Energy Drain for
Business Gain
Executive Summary
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© 2008 BPM Forum. All rights reserved.Introduction
The crisis of mass power consumption in the corporate the data center. The survey examines challenges and data center has come to a head. Power required to run success scenarios in creating lean computing and storage data centers in the U.S. is estimated to be as much as that infrastructures that deliver exceptional performance in an produced by five power plants in a year. Energy expenditures environmentally sound IT setting.and requirements have doubled in the last five years, and computer disposal is the fastest growing type of waste in the Guided by an advisory board of noted environmental, world, according to top Stanford researchers and Greenpeace. business, and technology authorities, Lean & Green is creating a body of intellectual capital around the issues and Adding to the concern are multiple industries that are opportunities presented by green computing along with ways requiring more and more data processing power to drive their to address the accelerating energy demands and rampant business, such as oil and gas exploration, financial services, waste of the data center and methods to increase IT yield and life sciences, entertainment, education, and many others. data productivity. These vertical segments are particularly feeling the crunch as space, storage and energy requirements are endangering not The study shows that despite rising costs of data center only the environment but their financial outlook. energy, and the increasing environmental concern over global warming, IT energy consumption continues to rise within a As a result of these concerns, green computing and energy large percentage of organizations. In fact, nearly half of these efficiency are starting to assume a front-seat position on the companies have consumed to the point of running out of priority list of IT departments. Most see the need for better space, power, or cooling. utilization and consolidation of systems as important in combating soaring energy costs and the staggering expenses IT professionals by and large realize that improvements must of lighting, power and cooling that data centers are incurring be made. Most are giving their companies poor or failing as they handle more data and transactions than ever before. grades in green achievement in IT, and can only consistently cite a few big companies as leading the way in green But concern and action are two different things. Most IT computing practices.professionals say green computing is at least somewhat of a priority, but relatively few have any specific plans in place and Organizations on the leading edge of environmental and even fewer have actually done anything about it. efficient data storage and processing practices are, however, realizing an important truth - that they can save green and These are just a few of the findings of Lean & Green: Reducing be green at the same time. In other words, it's not cost IT Energy Drain for Business Gain, a study completed by prohibitive to be environmentally sound, but rather helps The Business Performance Management (BPM) ForumT, in save substantial sums of money - to the tune of hundreds partnership with BlueArc Corporation. The initiative focuses of thousands to millions of dollars annually-- in the long on educating CIOs about ways IT organizations can benefit the term. More than 20 percent of respondents thought their environment, reduce power usage and lower costs through organizations could save $100,000 or more per year by more efficient computing and data storage practices. reducing server and network storage energy consumption. Six percent could save more than $10 million annually. It's The Lean & Green program commissioned a comprehensive this cost savings that accompanies green computing that is online survey of of more than 150 IT professionals and driving the train, even more than a sense of environmental executives along with executive advisory board dialogs responsibility or corporate showmanship. completed in February, 2008 to measure and quantify their current needs, obstacles and attitudes as they weigh Not only are there cost savings involved, but also business decisions about investing in green technology and downsizing performance advantages as well. Along with the push for
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