Green IT 1.0 – Adopt Today!
So, I did not invent the chart of the left – I have to thank the smart folks at Forrester Research who obviously spent a lot of time thinking about this. When I first saw it posted on Greener Computing, I thought I was looking at a traditional Gartner Group Hype Cycle and was in shock -
“OMG! Has hype already hit Green IT?”
Thankfully – this chart is an “Ecosystem Phase” chart (although is it really that much different than a hype cycle I ask?).
It shows the evolution of IT technologies (which I will refer to as “Services”) from the phases of “creation > survival > growth > equilibrium > decline”. According to the post, Green 1.0 Technologies refers to IT infrastructure – so the list pretty much makes sense and should ring a bell with all of us.
Green IT 1.0 Services
• 10 GbE (10 gigabit per second Ethernet)
• Clean energy to power data centers
• Client virtualization
• Cloud computing services
• Data center outsourcing and colocation services
• IT asset disposal and recycling services
• IT energy measurement
• Localized cooling
• Managed printing services
• PC power management software
• Server power management software
• Server virtualization
• Solid-state disk (SSD)
• Storage capacity optimization
• Thin clients
Wow! So, if you’re a top notch, on-the-ball IT person – you’ve now got a lot of things to be thinking and worried about! Life is not so simple any more – if you decide to actually engage in helping understand and optimize these services within your IT infrastructure. The question I ask is,
“Where the heck do you start?”
Any time I have seen a new technology or evolution (or sometimes revolution!) occur within an organization, it is by some smart and ambitious early adopter who decides to champion a cause that they believe will help the organization. Most times – he/she does this on their own time and by pure passion. With so many Green IT 1.0 Services – does this theory still hold water? Or does senior management need to stand behind IT and be supportive of the time it takes to investigate these proposed services?
With so much focus on Corporate Sustainability, Green IT, Green *.*, PUE and other flag waving initiatives – I really hope that IT folks are given the extra cycles and rewards to spend the time it takes to explore and evaluate Green 1.0 Services.
After all, Green IT 2.0 is just around the corner…
The full report, “TechRadar For I&O Professionals: Green IT 1.0 Technologies, Q2 2009″ is available for purchase from Forrester Research.
Everybody like a party right? Well I had the chance to attend the past SVLG event in Silicon Valley (where else?) hosted at the rocking NetApp campus. Nice digs! Super presenters and crowd.
