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Green IT appears recession resilient (for now)

An economic downturn doesn't appear to be derailing green IT efforts, according to a survey by Forrester Research.In the survey, Forrester found that a global recession is speeding up green IT plans in many cases because of the cost savings such efforts can produce.
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

An economic downturn doesn't appear to be derailing green IT efforts, according to a survey by Forrester Research.

In the survey, Forrester found that a global recession is speeding up green IT plans in many cases because of the cost savings such efforts can produce. Forrester surveyed 1,022 companies about their green IT practices. Of those respondents, 71 percent were from companies with more than 1,000 employees with 42 percent based in the U.S.

Forrester notes:

Corporate adoption of greener policies and practices for IT organizations continues apace. Again in the fourth survey of enterprise IT professionals that Forrester conducted in October 2008, the number of respondents jumped substantially from the previous survey. This time, we received responses from more that 1,500 IT global operations and architecture practitioners; this represented responses from 1,022 unique companies, up from 738 six months ago.1 By itself, this high survey response is an indicator of the steadily growing concern of the IT community about the environmental impact of computing operations.

Also see: ZDNet's Green Enterprise video series.

Here's a look at the green IT nuances (click to enlarge all charts):

And.

Among other points:

  • Tech vendors' marketing blitz on green IT seem to be working. Almost a half of IT professionals say they are highly aware of vendors' green communications efforts. Ninety-two percent of respondents were at least aware of the green marketing pitch.
  • Fifty-two percent of companies say they are implementing a green IT action plan, up 45 percent from six months ago.
  • Cost is the primary driver for green IT efforts in the U.S. Overseas, green IT efforts are driven by corporate positioning or brand image.

Here are the primary green IT drivers:

While this report is great news for the green IT movement--and all of the vendors looking to provide services--it'll be interesting to see how the next Forrester survey turns out. This survey was conducted in October and it's unclear how the latest round of corporate restructuring, which really has accelerated in November and December, will impact green IT planning.

Here's a video where I chat with Sumi Das about the economy and green IT interplay.

More reading:

How green is your vendor?

Wanna get green? Compress your email; Couple IT, facilities; Power down

Google makes waves and may have solved the data center conundrum

GreenTech Pastures

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