Recession rains on green IT

The economic crisis has slowed the uptake of green IT products, according to analysts.

A recent report from Forrester found that for the first time since 2007, enterprise uptake for environmentally-friendly IT products slowed down.

Of the companies surveyed by researchers, 11 per cent planned to slow down implementation of Green IT initiatives due to the recession, and 38 per cent planned to maintain their pace. This is compared to an October 2008 survey which found that just 5 per cent were slowing green initiatives and 39 per cent were maintaining pace.

"Sustainability and energy-efficient practices are becoming well entrenched in IT organizations worldwide," wrote Forrester analyst Christopher Mines.

"But the pace of green IT implementation is slowing in some companies; its priority is dropping in the face of slackening overall demand and tighter availability of investment capital."

There was some good news, however, 12 per cent of firms planned to accelerate green IT initiatives, up from 10 per cent last October.

The study found that of the companies that were adopting green IT programmes, cost-cutting was a main factor. Companies increasingly credited their green IT initiatives to a need for cutting energy and IT operations costs. Firms also increasingly cited the need to conserve space and avoid building new data centres as a factor.

Ultimately, however, Mines sees little harm to the green IT movement from the recession.

The analyst notes that sustainability programmes are well-entrenched in many major companies, and smaller firms will increasingly look to more efficient platforms as business recovers and growth resumes.