Green is the new black

John Madden, Research Director

Everyone - even IT vendors - likes to say they want to preserve the environment. In the past, environmental efforts by IT vendors have focused mostly on designing products that use less energy for operating and cooling, and on disposing of products in ways that will mitigate the environmental impact.

Everyone - even IT vendors - likes to say they want to preserve the environment. In the past, environmental efforts by IT vendors have focused mostly on designing products that use less energy for operating and cooling, and on disposing of products in ways that will mitigate the environmental impact.

However, 2007 will see environmental issues assume an even more critical and urgent position in IT vendors' priorities. Vendors - hardware, software and even services providers - will need to demonstrate higher levels of environmental leadership for customers, partners and the market at large. Customers can expect to see these vendors being more vocal and competitive about their environmental efforts, through new marketing messages and campaigns, as they attempt to jockey for position as the most 'green' IT company.

Why the new mandate to be even more eco-friendly? With IT managers facing sky-high energy bills to run their data centres, with new proposed regulations for the disposal of IT products both in the US and abroad, and with growing concern among the public at large about the environmental effects of global warming, it's not hard to see what's driving this inflection point.

Hardware vendors will be particularly affected; they will need to continue to design more energy-efficient products that can still keep up with customers' growing application and performance needs.

Proof that 'green' is the new black is everywhere in the IT industry, as evidenced by a spate of recent announcements.

• HP in November announced a joint initiative with the US branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in which the company committed to reducing the company's greenhouse gas emissions and improving the energy efficiency of its products. The announcement contains a number of targets - including the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from HP-owned and HP-leased facilities worldwide to 15% below their 2006 levels and the development of energy efficiency measurements for its wide range of products.
• Sun Microsystems in October unveiled Project Blackbox, a pre-configured, fully contained data centre in a shipping container that the vendor says is optimised for maximum density, performance and energy efficiency, and with recyclable parts and components. (A prototype is currently available, and the product will be generally available in 2007.)
• Sun and Dell are introducing new products that use reusable physical components (such as parts from a server chassis) to prevent them from ending up in landfills across the country.
• Intel, in addition to working on more power-efficient processors, has thrown its support behind efforts by the US Environmental Protection Agency to create revised 'Energy Star' standards for more energy-efficient electronics.
• Intel rival AMD, in conjunction with IBM, HP, and Sun, earlier this year launched the Green Grid project to look for best practices that will help customers reduce data centre energy consumption.
• Even powerhouse software vendors such as Oracle are highlighting their contributions to saving power and the planet (Oracle's green strategy was highlighted at its recent customer conference).

Vendors say they're increasing their green investments and initiatives to demonstrate they are serious about providing an example of effective corporate responsibility for the IT industry. Of course, these efforts aren't entirely altruistic. Customers hit by skyrocketing energy costs, for example, are making energy reduction a high priority in their IT purchases.

Customers won't base their buying decisions for products and services solely on whether a vendor and its products are eco-friendly. But some customers are starting to put vendors' green activities under a microscope. Smart vendors are already working to differentiate themselves in this area, and we expect them to intensify these efforts in 2007 and beyond.

John Madden brings more than a decade of industry experience to Ovum Summit, where he covers professional services and consulting; enterprise services; outsourcing and managed services; offshore outsourcing trends; systems integrators (SIs), including global, midsize and regional SIs; and support services.