Energy-Efficient Data Centres to be Recognised with Gartner Award

Entries sought from Asia Pacific region for inaugural Green Data Centre Award

Sydney, Australia, September 30, 2009 —  Nominations are now open for the inaugural Gartner Green Data Centre Excellence Award, to be presented at the Gartner Infrastructure Operations and Data Centre Summit in Sydney in March 2010.

Designed to promote excellence in ‘green IT’ principles within the data centre, the award will recognise organisations in the Asia Pacific region that have demonstrated best practice in using green technologies and practices.  

The Green Data Centre Excellence Award is open to organisations large or small, private or public sector, in any industry. Technology vendors or service providers are not eligible; however they are encouraged to assist their customers in submitting an application.

Gartner managing vice president Matthew Boon said that despite the economic downturn, green issues remained a high priority for data centre managers.

“Green IT initiatives in the data centre have moved beyond a tick in the box, to being at the centre of IT investments,” said Mr. Boon.

“Reducing costs remains the primary rationale for greening the data centre in 2009. However 2010 and beyond will see corporate social responsibility and government legislation increasingly driving green IT projects and associated investment,” said Boon.

A recent Gartner survey of large organisations around the world found that most green IT projects were not being shelved due to the downturn. For example in Australia, 51 percent of those surveyed expected their green IT investments to remain the same, with another 38 percent expecting increased investment in this area during 2009.

Three finalists for the award will be selected by Gartner analysts, who will evaluate entries on:

• The ability to demonstrate excellence in implementation and alignment of the various components of a Green Data Centre Framework; and
• Execution and support for using Green Data Centre applications and strategies to deliver significant business benefits or reach specific goals.

Finalists will be asked to present their case study to conference delegates at the Infrastructure and Operations Data Centre Summit in Sydney, 24 – 25 March 2010. Summit attendees will vote to select a winner from the finalists and a winner will be announced at the conference.

Applications close on Tuesday 12 January 2010. An application form is available online with detailed instructions on the conference web site here.

The Gartner Infrastructure, Operations and Data Centre (IODC) Summit will be held at the Sydney Convention Centre on 24 and 25 March 2010. Now in its fifth year in Australia, the Summit is designed to help IT managers take control over a new set of challenges, through operational transformation, virtualisation, disaster recovery, storage and server consolidation, systems management and improved use of power and cooling. For more information, please visit www.gartner.com/ap/datacentre

Contact:


Susan Moore
Gartner
+61 2 9459 4692
susan.moore@gartner.com


About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to 60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,000 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 80 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.