What Does Green IT Mean Today?
According to an article I read earlier this year, the term “green IT” has gone through a number of changes, including its definition and main objective. At first, green IT was all about being environmentally-friendly — reducing your carbon footprint and such. As energy costs began to rise, however, green IT quickly transitioned into a solution for cutting costs and saving money. Now, it seems as though green IT has morphed yet again into a new concept for many companies.
In effect, businesses are now talking about green IT in terms of “business value” or “total cost of ownership.” These concepts adopt a wider perspective when it comes to going green. Rather than implementing a handful of initiatives aimed at marketing an environmentally-friendly face or reducing departmental costs, companies are taking a wholistic approach. The trend, now, is discovering ways to offer and utilize entirely green IT services, not simply programs.
The article’s author, Michael Vizard, puts it this way:
What customers are looking for is a more thoughtful approach…. That means they don’t want to be pitched a bunch of random products that happen to be green, but rather an overall transformation of their IT environment based on a green solution that allows them to…lower the total cost of computing, while improving the company’s environmental track record.
“Going green” is no longer a cheap publicity stunt or hoop that companies feel obligated to jump through; it’s a real-time solution to the growing demand of effectively and efficiently operating IT services.
[photo: greenbang.com]
Tags: green IT, green it services, portland green it services