Accenture gets deeper into the green IT services game

Need some outside perspective on the green status of your IT infrastructure? Accenture, which is one of Forrester Research's darlings when it comes to green IT services, has created a set of services called the Accenture Green Technology Suite that handle anything from basic green "maturity" assessments and modeling tools to managing corporate carbon footprints. Here's a breakdown of what it's offering:

- Accenture Green Maturity Model, which includes 300 questions focused on determining a company's standing with respect to working practices and office environment, data center operations, procurement policy and corporate citizenship related to managing carbon footprint. The answers to these questions will yield a scorecard that is used to benchmark companies against their industry peers. More information is at this link: www.accenture.com/gmm.

- The Data Center Estimator is used for energy reduction strategies related to cooling, power distribution and IT infrastructure power requirements. Aside from actual numbers for each company, it can be used to investigate various scenarios for change.

- The Workplace Estimator looks at how a company's individual employees can have an impact through power management, technology recycling, travel policy changes and so forth.

If you're specifically focused on data center management, you should consider the new Data Center Energy Forecast Report from Accenture and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. The report includes specific, comparative case studies of energy savings projects that were made possible by technology already in existence. Might include some ideas for your own team. Here's that report.