Gartner Says Look Beyond Power Issue As Pressure Mounts for 'Greener' IT

374 Million PCs will be consigned to landfill sites or stored in next five years

France, Cannes, November 7, 2006 —

Electrical power consumption has become a headline issue in the ‘greener IT’ debate, but this is just the tip of a melting iceberg for an IT industry that is currently unsustainable, according to Gartner, Inc.

“Financial and environmental pressures, compounded by legislative changes and increasing consumer awareness, are combining to force IT vendors and chief information officers (CIOs) to take a closer look at the impact ‘green’ will have on their business,” said Steve Prentice, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The IT industry must now look beyond the current power issue and pay greater attention to broader issues, such as limiting carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, using materials from renewable resources, recycling materials and reusing heat from data centers.”

For IT vendors, this means evaluating how ‘green’ and sustainable their products and services are, from the cradle of manufacture to the grave of disposal or recycling. For CIOs, this means taking a fresh look at life-cycle management within the organisation to identify opportunities to minimise the impact of IT on the environment, at the same time as meeting business objectives.

While large global IT vendors are now well prepared for upcoming legislation, Gartner said they were forced to the table and it is the first time that legislation is leading technology development. If the industry now steps up to the challenge of leading instead of following regulation, it will be seen to be proactive, and thereby responsible, by buyers and positively influence legislation.

Gartner analysts explained the challenges facing IT during a press conference at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, which is being held here 5 – 9 November.

Financial Pressures

Perhaps the most compelling incentive currently available for organisations to ‘think and act green’ is the potential to reduce costs, hence the sharp focus on lowering energy consumption. “Organisations are increasingly deploying more computing power,” said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. “These systems require considerably more power and cooling than the last generation of hardware. Because global energy prices are rising, there is a significant increase in data center operational budgets. Most large enterprise IT organisations typically spend in the region of four to eight percent, in some cases 10 percent, of their total IT budgets on energy. But the twin factors of power hungry hardware and rising energy costs could lead to this figure rising by up to four times within five years. This will put pressure on the CIO to act, and is placing power consumption high up the IT agenda.”

Electrical power needed to run servers is not the only issue. Power is also needed for storage devices, networking controllers, uninterrupted power supplies and air conditioning. A realistic total figure for data centre power consumption is therefore at least double that used on servers alone.

Environmental Pressures

“The vast majority of hardware devices have been designed to provide maximum functionality and performance with little regard for wider environmental issues,” said Mr. Kumar. “For example traditional data centers typically waste more than 60 percent of the energy they use to cool the equipment. Another frightening example relates to the disposal of PCs. According to Gartner research, consumers and businesses will replace more than 800 million PCs worldwide in the next five years, of which an estimated 64 percent (512 million) will be disposed. 73 percent of those PCs will be consigned to landfill sites or stored, rather than recycled.”

Mr. Kumar said this is not sustainable; “This is bad for the environment and bad for business. Enlightened consumers and enterprise buyers will increasingly vote with their wallets, choosing more sustainable products and services from suppliers with environmentally conscious corporate social responsibility programmes.”

Legislative Changes

‘Green’ legislation is already forcing IT executives to review and change their environmental responsibilities. For example, the Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive in Europe, due to take effect in January 2007, imposes strict regulations on the way electrical equipment can be disposed. Because the refresh cycle for IT hardware (servers, storage and networking equipment) is getting shorter, users will have to dispose of more equipment in an environmentally friendly manner. Also, the European Union introduced the Restriction of Hazardous Substance (RoHS) directive on 1 July 2006. This is environmental legislation that focuses on hazardous substances, such as mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium. The effect of this is that IT vendors and IT departments will have to take greater environmental care in managing the total life cycle of their assets.

“The European Union’s new environmental legislation has led the global IT industry by the nose,” said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Extended producer-responsibility laws force IT vendors to incorporate environmental factors into design, manufacture, and even the marketing of products.”

IT Industry Must Act Now

“The IT industry must lead the way and do the right thing for business, the economy and the environment,” said Ms. Escherich. “Otherwise, the IT industry will continue to be forced into regulation that doesn’t technically or economically fit with what is needed.”

Gartner recommends IT vendors assess their current environmental policies and practices—particularly around greenhouse gas emissions, pollution and use of renewable resources—to ensure they not only meet current legislation, but can pass future, tougher legislation and closer scrutiny from environmentally aware buyers. “If the IT industry does not act now to put in place tough greener measures, it will be destined to playing a continual game of catch-up with legislators that don’t understand the complexity of technology or the business implications of poorly considered clauses,” said Ms. Escherich.

Likewise, as large IT organisations face similar pressures to develop more environmentally friendly computing environments, Gartner recommends CIOs start by investigating short and long term options to reduce power consumption and associated carbon emissions in the data center and client equipment.

 “CIOs need to ask suppliers and service providers about their activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their broader environmental policies,” said Mr. Kumar. “Vendor programmes are emerging that focus on IT environmental issues, and these should be embraced by IT organisations.” For example, vendors such as AMD, IBM, Dell, HP and Sun Microsystems are sponsoring a new initiative called the ‘Green Grid’. They hope this will become a user group focused on data center power and cooling issues.

Ms Escherich added, “Disposal has become a producer responsibility. More than 70 percent of requests for proposals (RFPs) in Europe now include provision for disposal. CIOs need to carefully assess disposal alternatives against corporate tolerance for risk, as data cannot be fully removed from hardware that is destined for reuse, leaving some CIOs with permanent disposal as the only choice.”

“The time is rapidly approaching when CIOs and IT vendors will need to act fundamentally different to meet business, societal and legislative demands for not just environmentally friendly, but sustainable products and services,” said Mr. Prentice. “But right now, the IT Industry should take real steps to position itself as part of the ‘green’ solution. If it does nothing to get its own house in order, it will be seen as part of the problem,” said Mr. Prentice.

 

Contacts:


Laurence Goasduff
Gartner
+ 44 1784 267 195
laurence.goasduff@gartner.com

Carina Forsling
Gartner
+46 8 624 6324
carina.forsling@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.