A large focus on the “Green” movement and green objectives has emerged in organizations as consumers are demanding more environmental responsibility from the companies with which they do business. Recent research has shown that while the initiatives may be there, many organizations are falling down on the job.


Research announced today by Global DataCenter Management (GDCM) and Quocirca has found that organizations in Europe and the U.S. are failing to meet green objectives due to an apparent break-down in communications between the corporate board and IT management level.

Of those organizations surveyed, more 35 percent that have a carbon footprint reduction policy do not pass it onto IT as a formal objective. In fact, 55 percent of data center managers are not even aware of their monthly power bill costs despite having the ability to make these savings at a data center level.

The data center is easily the most power hungry area of a business and unless organizations accurately manage their power consumption at this level, they cannot claim to be truly green.

Awareness of server utilization is another problem within the enterprise. According to this research, 47 percent of organizations do not even measure server utilization levels.

Among those who do not measure, nearly half of data center managers and CIOs, or 46 percent, believe their servers to be more than 75 percent utilized, even though the industry average is below 25 percent.

Dennis Szubert, Quocirca, said in a Wednesday statement: "There's been much hype around corporate commitment to the reduction of CO2 emissions over the last few years, but our research suggests many are still only paying lip service to environmental issues.”

“For objectives to be met, organizations need to be completely in tune with their whole business and have a thorough understanding of where power reduction can happen. For the majority this will be within the data centre. With this in mind, it's clear that more needs to be done to link the corporate board with the people who can truly make the difference - data centre managers," Szubert added.

The research also found that when it comes to reducing power consumption levels within the data center, 54 percent of managers lack the incentive to do so as power costs are not included in their overall IT budgets and profit and loss figures. As such, many are failing to prioritize the reduction of CO2.

This study found that 28 percent of data center managers do not know the exact number of servers they have and 30 percent are not aware of all devices on their network. In addition, 43 percent of European data centers are power constrained.

Consumers in Europe and the U.S. are not in synch on their attitudes toward environmental issues. German organizations displayed the highest commitment to saving electricity within the data center, followed by Americans. The French have proven to have little concern when it comes to the reduction of CO2, with the Brits somewhere in the middle.

Michael Evans, Managing Director of GDCM said in Wednesday’s statement: "Today's data centre manager faces a wealth of challenges in maintaining efficiency levels, finding space for their equipment and understanding and managing their data centre assets. Tackling all of these issues on a daily basis means for many, meeting power consumption objectives do not even factor.”

“Coupled with an apparent lack of guidance from the corporate board, it's clear that more needs to be done to support the data centre manager. Providing incentives from the top down will help, but more importantly tools need to be sought which can provide support in addressing these challenges," Evans added.

----------

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.

Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Today’s featured white paper is The “BRAIN” Model of Intelligibility in Business Telephony, brought to you by Polycom (News - Alert).