IT managers care about energy efficiency, but have trouble achieving it, report shows

Public and private sector information technology (IT) managers generally agree that energy efficiency is important, according to a new report from Vernon Hills, Ill.-based CDW Government. However, they are unclear on how to accomplish it, according to CDW-G’s 2008 Energy Efficient IT (E2IT) report, released Monday.

CDW-G surveyed 778 IT professionals in federal, state and local governments, along with businesses and educational institutions, for E2IT. “While energy efficiency has become a ‘motherhood’ value in IT — more than 90 percent of IT buyers say they care about it — there is often much uncertainty about what to do, primarily because good information is severely lacking,” CDW Vice President Mark Gambill said in a statement. “The first step in reducing energy consumption is to know what you are spending, yet more than 40 percent of technology professionals say they don’t see their organization’s energy bill.”

The report found that 39 percent IT professionals in organizations with energy management initiatives reduced their total energy costs by 40 percent by buying equipment with low power/low-wattage processors, training employees to shut down their equipment when it is not in use, consolidating and optimizing servers and a few other simple steps. The E2IT report is available at
http://www.cdwg.com/e2it.