Stories about: PG&E

Until recently, many CIOs didn't know how much electricity their IT equipment used, and they didn't care.

IT is turning greenish.

"Many CIOs are a little cavalier about making raising customer satisfaction an explicit goal," says Harley Manning, vice president and director of Forrester Research's customer experience group. Rather, he says, objectives such as cost avoidance and innovation are far more likely to receive top billing on a CIO's project roster. That's because not only is bolstering customer loyalty a hard sell among corporate bean counters, its (arguably) intangible benefits and its (allegedly) nebulous returns often make it a thankless job. After all, when it comes to customer feedback, CIOs typically hear one of two things: harsh criticism or the sound of one hand clapping."

It sounded like a no-brainer when we started the project in 2003. The idea was to replace our aging, 155Mbps ATM-over-SONET network with a new network based on 10G Ethernet over dense wavelength division multiplexing.

How green is your data centre? If you don't care now, you will soon. Most data centre managers haven't noticed the steady rise in electricity costs, since they don't usually see those bills. But they do see the symptoms of surging power demands.

The San Francisco Bay Area's naturally cool weather could help IT managers cut electricity costs. But Mark Bramfitt, who manages energy reduction programs for the high-tech sector at Pacific Gas & Electric Co., knows that most data centres are walled off from green alternatives.

Acrimony and architecture don't have to go hand-in-hand. Here are five steps toward creating common ground.

More and more, companies need to blend in-house staff with outside contractors. Here's what to do when part of your team doesn't really feel like part of the team. Includes "Eight steps for achieving a blended workforce"