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Is going green still a priority in credit crisis?
Only if it saves money…

By Colin Barker

Published: Wednesday 15 October 2008

A survey conducted by the organisers of Storage Expo 2008 has concluded that IT budgets are getting tighter because of the credit crunch but that this will have an uncertain effect on spending on green issues.

Of the 513 organisations surveyed in the UK, 70 per cent said green IT and efficiency were still priorities but with the provision that it must be saving them money.

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Only four per cent said it was "a priority even if there were no cost savings", the survey said. Ten per cent said they are no longer pursuing green IT because of budget cutbacks, and four per cent said green IT was never a priority.

While there are worries about job security because of the financial situation, only a few respondents (two per cent) said they were so worried about their job they could not even think about it.

IBM is sponsoring an energy-efficiency zone at Storage Expo this year. Mick Walker, an IBM green-efficiency consultant, believes the pressure to drive down costs is making companies look again at green issues. "The increasing cost of energy... is making an energy-efficient data centre a more compelling proposition," Walker suggested.

Storage Expo 2008 runs on 15-16 October at Olympia in London.