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The IT Energy Efficiency Imperative

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Once again, I've had a long hiatus from blogging.  But I've got an excuse (this time!).  I've been heads down on finalizing a new white paper on IT energy efficiency.   I also just returned from Corporate EcoForum's annual meeting where a number of the attendees confirmed the key assertion in the paper - that in most organizations, server utilization is embarassingly low and falling, and (as the chart above shows) improving it provides the biggest opportunity for increasing IT energy efficiency.  Move over PUE! (we still love you though).

As I posted on Microsoft's sustainability blog, the paper explores the critical importance and substantial benefits of embracing IT energy efficiency in a world where almost every facet of business and society is dependent on IT-based services. The exponential demand for these IT services is beginning to strain the capacity and cost effectiveness of many organizations’ IT infrastructures. It shows why adopting strong IT energy efficiency principles and practices – from the top of the organization down to the IT pro - can significantly mitigate these challenges and improve the cost effectiveness, capacity and flexibility of tomorrow’s IT infrastructures.

In this paper, we:

  • Highlight the financial, productivity and environmental benefits of embracing IT energy efficiency.
  • Illustrate why increasing IT resource utilization from today’s low levels offers the most significant energy efficiency gains and why current efforts to improve utilization are failing.
  • Provide motivation and actionable guidance for IT and business decision makers to improve IT energy efficiency and resource utilization through technologies such as cloud computing.

If you are looking to reduce costs and increase the ROI from IT (particularly within data centers), or simply contribute to reducing the environmental impact of IT, please download this onscreen-readable whitepaper and let me know what you think.