ChannelWeb reports on the NASCIO 2008 conference.

State CIOs Say Budget, Energy Crises Are Forcing Green Initiatives

By Craig Zarley, ChannelWeb
10:33 AM EDT Thu. Sep. 25, 2008

Rising energy costs and looming budget crises have made consolidation and green technology initiatives top priorities for state CIOs in fiscal 2009, creating a potential boom for solution providers that can capitalize on the trends.

State CIOs attending the NASCIO 2008 annual conference in Milwaukee said consolidation and the expected savings in infrastructure and energy costs was their biggest priority for 2009. In an interactive poll of the 44 CIOs at the event, 46 percent said their top IT initiative for fiscal 2009 is consolidation, far outdistancing legacy software replacement, which came in second with 27 percent of the CIOs voting it their top priority.

Interesting at conferences lately I attended when asked if CIO gets the energy bill usually less than 10% raise their hands. With stats like above it would appear that many more CIOs are seeing the energy bill as cost reduction is a top theme for the Cx0s and they are looking at the electricity bill.

Server and data center consolidation are typical efforts.

Brian Rawson, chief technology officer for Texas, said his state is about 18 months into an 89-month consolidation plan. Prior to the consolidation efforts, Texas had more than 5,300 servers, 16 mainframes and 31 data centers. As a result of the consolidation plan, Texas will reduce the number of data centers from 31 down to two, he said.

"We sold the consolidation plan on savings, but we will sustain it on service delivery," Rawson said.

What's more, the rush to server consolidation among the states is seen as part of a broader green initiative that CIOs view as helping to drastically reduce energy costs, particularly in the data center environment.

Making points about Green IT being a mandate.

CIOs noted that green technology is no longer a fad or a political ploy. Ken Theis, Michigan's CIO, said that CIOs need to take a leadership role in pushing green technology and he even suggested that states appoint chief energy or "greening" officers. "We are at a crossroads," he said. "Green technology is something that is critical now but it is soon to be a mandate."

Consolidating printers and faxes made sense as well.

As part of Michigan's consolidation and green technology initiatives, Theis said the state has focused on peripherals as well as server consolidation. "One of the things we did was have networked multifunction printers," he said. "We were able to actually remove 8,000 disparate fax machines and printers from the system. Why do [consolidation]? Budgets are going to get tighter and energy costs are going to get higher. If we don't get in front of it today, it's going to take us along for the ride."

As it becomes less convenient to print and fax with fewer devices, it will help to drive down usage. One perspective to be green is it make it harder for users to print.  HP can’t be happy about going Green and saving trees by not printing.

WSJ has an article about environmentalism’s growth in corporate board.

Environmentalism Sprouts Up
On Corporate Boards

More Companies Start
Panels on Green Issues
Amid Push by Activists

By JOANN S. LUBLIN

More U.S. corporate boards are going green.

Amid rising investor worries over global warming and shrinking natural resources, directors are keeping a closer watch on environmental issues. Boards at Integrys Energy Group Inc., Quicksilver Resources Inc., Tesoro Corp. and elsewhere recently have created separate environmental panels -- joining long-established ones at DuPont Co., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Rohm & Haas Co. Other companies cover environmental issues with an existing board committee.

About 25% of Fortune 500 companies now have a board committee overseeing the environment, compared with fewer than 10% five years ago, estimates Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a national coalition of activists, investors and others concerned with the environment. Such panels typically try to make sure that executives effectively handle conservation efforts, new environmentally friendly ventures like wind power, compliance with environmental regulations and related business risks.

And, how shareholders are creating pressure.

Shareholders are more active on environmental issues, too. The number of investor proposals related to the environment nearly doubled between 2004 and 2008, RiskMetrics Group Inc. says. Many proposals urge increased board attention to the issue.

The Earth's sustainability "has become a much more important part of every board's activities," observes Lester A. Hudson, chairman of American Electric Power Co.'s governance committee, which monitors environmental concerns.

AEP's experience illustrates the new dynamic. The electric utility, based in Columbus, Ohio, is among the largest U.S. users of coal -- and emitters of greenhouse gases.

In November 2003, public-employee pension funds offered a shareholder resolution urging independent directors to assess how AEP would deal with potential regulations to reduce carbon dioxide and other power-plant emissions. Mr. Hudson says three fellow directors formed a special panel to do a study, prompting the unions to drop their proposal.

So, even though you may be frustrated in your company that executives are not listening to you internally, pressures are building from shareholders to address environmental issues. Don’t be surprise you start to see executives you checked with months ago, changing their tunes on green/sustainability initiatives.

BusinessWeek has an interview with IT managers in India, Intel, and EMC.

India is facing a power shortage of 70,000 megawatt (MW). As a result, to maintain power supply, much of corporate India has had to rely on generators that run on diesel and cause pollution. And with the soaring crude price, Indian enterprises are faced with escalating energy bills.

Ravichandran said: "Although the desire to create a greener planet will drive some implementations, the primary driver for green IT adoption in Asia-Pacific is the cost savings provided by higher energy-efficiency."

Virtualization is discussed.

"Companies across segments in IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) in India have been early adopters of consolidation and virtualization," Sanjiv Kapur, senior vice president and head of Patni-BPO, told ZDNetAsia in an e-mail interview. Patni Computer Systems is an Indian company providing IT services. "At Patni, almost 50 percent of our data centers are virtualized," Kapur said.

A recent IDC India survey estimated that 22 percent of servers were virtualized in 2007, and projected this would increase to 45 percent by end-2008.

"The virtualization trend is fast catching up in India," Kapur said. "Most of the leading companies in India are proactively looking at server consolidation, virtualization as well as improved cabling architecture."

Today, Indian companies have an array of green computing alternatives to choose from, with large IT vendors including Intel, EMC, IBM and Microsoft, offering more energy-efficient and environment-friendly products.

In the past when I have discussed Green Data Center initiatives in India, the response many times is “we are a rich country we don’t need to be worried about energy efficiency.” It looks like this mindset is changing.

According to Ravichandran, Intel's use of virtualization and grid computing enabled the company to save US$30 million in 2007 in capital purchases. "Since 2006, we have seen an 11 percent increase in server utilization, which will allow Intel to save approximately US$77 million in 2008 capital purchases," he said.