Head to head: “How important are Green IT issues to the end-user?”

VENDOR: Wyse Technology

Ward Nash, regional sales director

Over the past few years, improving energy efficiency while minimising the environmental impact corporations have on global warming has become a top of mind business issue with senior IT executives.

Becoming carbon neutral has moved from a “fluffy feel good” concept to an absolute must-do for many end-users. Thin computing has always been much “Greener” than fat client but only recently has this message begun to resonate with customers. Six-star Green buildings seem to be on all the big end of towns’ to do lists.

As the large firms drive these projects we believe the cost and awareness will quickly filter out to everyone. Wyse terminals use as little as 10 percent of the energy consumption of an average PC. Getting rid of PCs seems to be an easier way to become more Green than refitting the airconditioning system or replacing lighting within a large office block.

It’s great to see “doing the right thing” now has a monetary reward associated with it. Only a few years ago we did not see the massive interest in desktop carbon footprint that we are seeing now. The time has come for thin computing to help save the planet.
DISTRIBUTOR: Cellnet

Aidan Fitzgerald, IBM business manager

As a distributor, we are seeing an increased focus by the manufacturers on Green issues. This is driven by the increase of questions raised by resellers from the end-users. The days of an end-user making a decision based around the speeds and feeds and initial costs alone are now long gone, with equal importance being placed on questions around subjects such as space utilisation, power utilisation and virtualisation at the very least. The end-users are becoming increasingly aware for the environmental impact their decisions have and as such want to research any impact. An obvious focus and major effect on the environment is the amount of power that’s required to run the IT infrastructure of any major organisation. Companies now have a better comprehension of what types of IT equipment will give them the best option with power usage – this is now something the resellers are using to cost justify IT spend on presentation to the end-users. This also drives purchasing behaviour towards virtualisation, which gives the end-users better utilisation of resources, reduced carbon footprint due to reduced power costs and purchase of newer, more environmentally friendly models.
RESELLER: Oriel Technologies

Rodney Haywood, virtualisation practice manager

Oriel is seeing a shift towards Green awareness from our customers in the mid-market space, however we haven’t seen Green IT as being either the reason for initiating new IT solutions, or as a key requirement for those new solutions.

When you implement server consolidation plus desktop virtualisation on the latest hardware that deals with power and cooling more efficiently, such as blade servers, it is easy for customers to go Green. However customers are flocking to these solutions because of traditional benefits such as high ROI, reduced TCO, flexibility, higher service levels and reduced management overhead.

Where energy savings are a requirement, it is because of current capacity restrictions rather than Green benefits. We do expect to see the ‘Green’ mandates, currently in the government and major enterprise space, flow through to the mid-market space. Once IT managers pay for their electricity out of their own budget, along with needing to meet emission reductions alongside the other business units, the drivers will change quickly. Maybe the Green IT wave is about to land?

ANALYST: IBRS

Dr. Kevin McIsaac, advisor

Climate change is now a hot social issue and organisations with a “social responsibility” strategic objective are looking to reduce their environmental impact.

While reducing environmental impact is a laudable goal, the reality is that Green projects must have clear economic benefits. As a result of the uncertainty created by the deteriorating global economic environment it is expected that current Green IT projects will be closely scrutinised and those that lack clear financial benefits will be shelved.

The data centre is a prime target because in most organisations it houses a significant proportion of IT resources, and it is the area over which IT has the greatest control.

IT organisations are looking for short-term initiatives that are self-funding and can be accomplished with little or no capital investment. A key success factor is the identification of, and engagement with, a stakeholder who has the authority to push the project though when it gets stopped by organisational blockages. Look for an executive who has a corporate accountability for a social responsibility objective or attachment to a Green agenda.