Remote-access technology company Lantronix is brandishing a self-commissioned survey that gauges the green IT priorities of approximately 300 IT professionals.
The data is illustrative of several surveys sitting in my in-box right now in that is dedicated to spinning some sort of green angle for virtually every piece of information technology in existence. This one, however, falls into the category of touting technology that could facilitate a company’s broader green business initiatives and help cut IT support costs.
According to the Lantronix poll, green IT is a top priority for about one-third of the respondents during 2009. Fewer than half of these respondents, however, have adopted policies related to improving the green profile of their IT portfolio.
The other thing that Lantronix looked at in the study was how many on-site support calls these same IT professionals had to manage in the course of an average week, and the implied cost of these visits in terms of carbon emissions and corporate productivity. Approximately 43 percent of the surveyed companies, according to its data, dispatch someone to a specific physical location at least once a week to fix a problem. More than 20 percent resort to sending someone on-site at least two to three times a week. Meanwhile (here’s the hook, folks) about 40 percent of the survey respondents have installed technology that lets them ferret out these problems remotely.
Since Lantronix sells remote-access management solutions, it isn’t that hard to see where this is going: the company is seeking to make the link between these products and being greener in your business.
The thing is, I believe this point is valid.
I view remote access and managed services as the sort of technology that isn’t just cost-effective, helping companies solve support problems more quickly and preventing productivity-time-suck, but also as one that helps reduce a company’s green footprint.
This is especially true for companies that have a lot of branch locations where there isn’t an IT staffer (think a big retail chain or a bank) or in remote geographic areas where stuff is just plain far away.
Remote access technology = green IT. It’s pretty easy to see the argument.
