Managed services should get a boost from the green IT movement

Are managed services (aka outsourcing) a solution to the green IT imperative?

Think about the various green IT strategies that are taking hold and many of the best answers come down to automation and better proactive management.

For example, that patch management solution your IT staff uses to deploy operating system updates could also be used to tweak power management settings. Elsewhere, the issues around creating green data centers may actually create a great argument for an outsourcing or managed services strategy, albeit it one that just moves the design and ongoing monitoring responsibility somewhere else. A service focused on managing the lifecycle of various hardware assets could become not only a better way to keep a handle on upgrades, but also a method of having someone else handle disposal, recycling or refurbishment.

A new site from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) has an interesting article along these lines. From a technology sourcing standpoint, it might not be a bad idea to look at whether renegotiating an existing relationship could help from both a cost and a green tech compliance standpoint.