First Step
The first step usually taken by a majority of SMBs to go green is to start with a retrofit of existing server rooms to increase energy efficiency. Almost 63 per cent of Indian IT enterprises have either completed this task, or have a pilot project underway. Half the companies who participated in this study were either piloting or implementing at least one of the eleven green IT initiatives from four major groups (virtualization and consolidation, energy efficiency, travel reduction, and asset disposal).
 
"SMBs have now realized that green initiatives help decrease electricity consumption and consumables usage," Ramesh Narasimhan, director, general business, IBM India/South Asia.
 
Energy Measurement
Saving power requires the measurement of IT electrical consumption, something many companies cannot do. However, the survey finds that more than 50 per cent of companies have implemented some form of energy measurement for their information technology infrastructure, and about a quarter plan to do so in the year ahead.

"IT energy measurement is a particularly important initiative since its data quantifies the true cost of energy used by IT, and allows management to determine which parts of IT infrastructure should be optimized next. For example, one of the respondents who recently adopted energy metering for the server room, articulated that they can now install meters to track usage and make efficiency gains not only in today's time but also in the long run," says Narasimhan.

Hot Technologies
Storage consolidation, server and desktop virtualization are key technologies adopted by SMBs to reduce cost and consumption. The rate of server virtualization across most regions (with an average implementation rate of 48 per cent) is evidence that virtualization is undisputedly the most popular of all green IT efforts. Almost two-thirds of all companies globally are currently, or are planning within the next 12 months, to add virtualization technology to their servers.

Apart from virtualization, SMBs are looking at video conferencing and unified communications as effective ways to bring down commuting costs. The survey found that while 50-60 per cent of Indian, Brazilian, North American and British businesses are up and running with telecommuting and virtual conferencing capabilities, Germany, France and to a lesser extent, the Nordic countries have been slower to adopt these technologies. Initiatives intended to reduce travel are clearly going to receive the highest attention from countries over the next twelve months.

e-Waste Recycling
IT equipment recycling is also an area that is being seriously considered by SMBs as a part of their green efforts. Overall, 56 per cent of the companies surveyed have either completed or are implementing outdated hardware recycling programs. This is very encouraging, especially as the Dataquest survey discovered that PSUs and large enterprises are doing little or no work on e-waste management. On the other hand, approximately 23 pe cent of IT departments of SMBs reported plans to adopt IT equipment recycling and energy measurement practices within the next 12 months.

The Indian market boasts of more than 35 million SMBs and is now competing globally. The fact that they are consciously looking at green IT to improve internal efficiencies, save costs and join the technology elite group, is encouraging.