by Brianna Crandall — July 29, 2016 — New research indicates that nearly a third of boards do not discuss data center resource efficiency, despite it being considered an important part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. This is leading to increased uncertainty and difficulties in predicting and reducing future costs, situations to which many facilities managers can relate.
The research commissioned by The Green Grid, a global consortium dedicated to advancing resource efficiency in information technology (IT) and data centers, surveyed 150 IT decision makers and found that only two-thirds (62%) of organizations are discussing data center energy efficiency at board level. This suggests that conversations to better understand the contribution of green IT to CSR strategies must be facilitated through clearer monitoring and measuring models provided by IT leaders.
Roel Castelein, EMEA marketing chair of The Green Grid, pointed out:
There are two issues that are leading many organizations to struggle in understanding resource efficiency and how best to increase it. Firstly, the conversations are not always happening at the right level. Sustainability is an organizational issue, and therefore it needs to be understood by the board — especially as the data center is often one of the largest resource drains in an organization.
Secondly, even when it is discussed at the board level, many are uncertain about the subject due to a lack of data and experience in order to make effective decisions.
Key findings include:
- 38% of respondents would like more time to monitor their data
- The majority of respondents (97%) claim that monitoring within data centers could be improved for increased energy efficiency
- Around two-fifths (43%) believe that the future costs is the top challenge perceived by the board, followed by the cost of refreshing hardware (37%) and actually meeting environmental targets (33%)
Roel concluded:
IT leaders must be willing to knock harder on the boardroom door with more insights into resource efficiency, when discussions on CSR are raised. The only way to bring clarity on improving sustainability and resource effectiveness is by measuring and monitoring the data center effectively and providing clear advice on how to make further improvements.
Our research shows that there is far more room for improvement with monitoring processes and the time spent analyzing the data. Only when IT leaders start tackling this head on and enhance their offering in this area will board directors start to get the clarity that they need.
The research was conducted in October 2015. The survey studied responses on data center resource efficiency from 150 IT decision makers at end-user organizations, including companies who run their own data centers as well as co-located data center providers, from across the U.K., France and Germany.
