Indian CIOs' wallets open for green IT

PUNE:  IT executives in India have reported a significant increase in green IT budgets. 

According to a Symantec Green IT report, ninety per cent of the respondents it recently surveyed, expect an increase in green IT budgets over the next 12 months, while 24 per cent expect increases of more than 10 per cent.  The typical respondent reported spending $10 to 16 million on data center electricity. 

Also, IT is willing to pay a premium for energy efficient products.  One-third of respondents said they would pay at least 10 per cent more, while 36 per cent are willing to pay at least 20 per cent more.  Additionally, 97 percent of respondents said IT product efficiency is either important or very important.

It appears that enterprises in India have embarked on the drive to be environmentally conscious. Close to 60 percent of respondents from large enterprises in India state they are at least discussing or are in trial stages of a green IT strategy, while 39 percent are already in the process of implementing green IT initiatives.  IT decision makers are increasingly justifying green IT solutions by more than cost and IT efficiency benefits. 

These trends have come out in Symantec’s 2009 Green IT Report, a follow up to the Green Data Center report released in late 2007.  According to survey data, senior-level IT executives in India report significant interest in green IT strategies and solutions, attributed to both cost reduction and environmental responsibility.  The data points to a shift from implementing green technologies primarily for cost reduction purposes, to a more balanced awareness of also improving the organization’s environmental standing, says the company.

Respondents cited key drivers as reducing electricity consumption (83 per cent), reducing cooling costs (91 per cent), and corporate pressure to be green (86 per cent).  Furthermore, 70 per cent of respondents are now responsible or cross-charged for the electricity consumed in the data center—bringing visibility and accountability to bear on the ultimate consumer of these resources.      

"Large Indian enterprises today are confronted with issues of unprecedented data explosion, burgeoning storage and complex information management processes," said Anand Naik, director, Systems Engineering, Symantec India . "This has put tremendous pressure on IT departments and CIOs while managing storage utilization, power consumption costs and energy efficiency matters. As CIOs take a serious relook at their strategies, green initiatives figure high on the ‘must do’ list to perk up their data centers from a technology, business and environment point of view."