Green IT: Is It More than Hype?

Published August 24, 2008

Green IT, according to the Gartner research firm, has just about reached the peak of its hype cycle, what Gartner calls the "Peak of Inflated Expectations." TechCrunch, in its blog post Where Are We In The Hype Cycle?, displays a chart of various technologies according to Gartner's judgment. In the cycle, each technology starts as a Technology Trigger, quickly jumps to its Peak of Inflated Expectations, declines through the Trough of Disillusionment, then gradually recovers through the Slope of Enlightenment, and the Plateau of Productivity.

It's all very, very clever. And when it comes to Green IT, it's also also very, very wrong.

Many of the technologies Gartner charts truly are hype-driven, and need a long time of gestation before they pay off.

Green IT is different. There's a very real return on investment associated with green IT, and it can ultimately be clearly measured. When enteprises go green, they also make green as well, in the form of cash. Virtualization is good for the environment because it saves electricity, for example. But in doing so, it also saves companies plenty of money.

Technologies that deliver clear ROIs like that tend not to get caught in the hype cycle. They don't need hype in order for companies to deploy them, because they're good for the bottom line.

That being said, there is plenty of inertia standing in the way of Green IT. It often requires upfront investment, and it certainly requires plenty of planning and time. It sometimes requires a change of corporate culture. And it can also require a restructuring of job responsibilities, such as getting the IT and facilities departments working more closely together.

Still, those hurdles have nothing to do with hype. Gartner has put together a very clever hype chart --- but in this case, the chart is simply wrong.

Green hype and green wash maybe endangered...

Anonymous, August 28, 2008 - 13:57

Preston,

While Green washing and green related hype may be on the decline, except for those who missed it on the first time around and are late to the game, real green related issues and challenges including power, cooling, floor-space, environmental health and safety (EHS) are here to stay.

This includes a shift from the current focus of consolidation to the next wave of enabling business agility; sustain business growth and application enhancements while fitting into existing or future constrained power, cooling and floor-space footprint, capital and operating budgets along with applicable or emerging ETS or other regulations.

Today given the current green washing and hype, ask many IT organizations if they are spending money on being greener, and you will get some positive responses, however, ask those same organizations if they are spending to become more energy efficient, reduce power and cooling, maximize floor-space, address e-waste and technology disposal, enable future growth and expansion of services while fitting into the same or reduced budget, and you will find even more positive responses.

There lies the green gap between green hype and messaging and making the connection where IT organizations are or will be spending to address issues which may not be seen as being green based on commonly heard messaging, yet, indirectly by moving to more energy efficient practices including infrastructure resource management, there are both economic and environmental benefits for all parties involved. Doing more with less, doing more transactions with less energy, storing more data in a smaller footprint, responding to more I/O operations per second with less energy, moving more data over a network using less energy all in a smaller physical footprint using environmental friendly technologies.

The net net is that a shift to operating IT resources including servers, storage, networks, facilities and associated software in a more energy efficient manner has both environmental as well as economic benefits.

Cheers
Greg Schulz – Author “The Green and Virtual Data Center” (Auerbach) www.thegreenandvirtualdatacenter.com

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