Sustainability a priority for government IT leaders
- 31 August, 2011 14:45
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Three-quarters of Asia-Pacific government CIO and IT managers recognise the need for a dedicated office to plan and execute an overall ICT sustainability strategy.
This is a key finding of a new survey by Schneider Electric, which explores attitudes towards energy efficiency against the growing environmental and financial cost of energy in the region.
Surprisingly, of the 32 per cent of respondents who said cost and/or availability of electricity would have a significant impact on their data centre’s ability to support operations over the next three years, more than 70 per cent were from developing nations such as Indonesia, China and Vietnam.
In contrast, more developed countries, including Australia and New Zealand, were less concerned with the supply of energy, maintaining that it would likely only affect a number of departments or have minimal impact.
“It’s important that government decision-makers understand the cost of not solving this problem is significantly higher than the solution,” said Schneider Electric Singapore IT business vice-president, Benedict Soh.
“All government CIOs and ICT managers now realise that this cost burden is unsustainable for their country — it diminishes the funds available for investment in productivity, expansion of output, and ultimately affects their overall global competitiveness.”
A majority of respondents also said the data centre is a key focus area for reducing energy consumption, with only 20 per cent not focused on the issue. Energy efficiency was identified as a high priority by 72 per cent of respondents when it came to building new data centres or expanding existing operations.
The main initiatives included server virtualisation and consolidation, policy implementation and cooling system redesign.
“With the global rise of energy prices and looming threat of an energy crisis, energy is becoming more than just expensive — it’s a liability,” Soh warned.
“It is important for all Asia-Pacific government agencies to recognise the urgency of implementing energy-efficient technology. An intelligent energy management data centre solution is one of the first steps to reducing risk and controlling costs."
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