Energy rebates
Customers should take advantage of energy rebates and credits where available. To date, there are a handful of power companies offering incentives for installing more energy-efficient storage, including PG&E of Northern California. However, according to Mark Bramfitt, program manager of PG&Es IT incentive program, Not many storage vendors are taking advantage of the initiative. To date, no customer has received an incentive rebate for installing more energy-efficient storage equipment. This is largely because storage vendors havent bothered to qualify for the program.
Green carrots & sticks
Green initiatives may require an initial capital outlay, giving pause to financial managers. However, in this day and age they bring inherent appeal. As such, organizations should use green initiatives as a catalyst to modernize infrastructure which can lead to better ROI (e.g., server and storage virtualization). By linking green to a corporate initiative and marketing it internally, IT managers can ride the coattails of CEO edicts.
A critical success factor is cohesion between IT and facilities. These groups have different goals today and need to be aligned for green initiatives to thrive. Establish cross-functional teams and partnerships within IT and the business, with representation from infrastructure groups in IT and the energy experts in facilities management. Bridge the two perspectives, and begin designing power and cooling considerations into virtually all decisions, understanding the tradeoffs and benefits. Vendors can be helpful in this process if you can get past the product hype.
Managers should consider treating green initiatives like a normal project with clear measurements, solutions, and timelines for reduction in power consumption. Remember, ultimately the goal is to reduce the energy bill which can be leveraged within IT and marketed to the business.
David Vellante is a co-founder and contributor to The Wikibon Project (http://www.wikibon.org), a research and advisory community of practitioners dedicated to the open sharing of Business Technology knowledge.
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