You probably know that IT uses more energy than most other parts of a business. So getting the tech crew to think a little greener could be the key to slashing the size of your ever-increasing energy bills.

What’s a good way to get IT to pay attention to energy costs?

Shift at least some of your utility expenses to IT’s budget. That’ll get their attention.
It’s happening in more and more companies these days as data retention rules are changing and storage requirements are skyrocketing.

For all the talk about energy consumption in the data center, it seems many IT managers aren’t “thinking green” when they make decisions about computer hardware, servers and cooling systems for their growing data centers.

For them, reliability and price/performance continue are bigger issues than low-energy processors and high-efficiency fans.

This could be because IT managers, in many cases, aren’t responsible for the cost of utilities used to power and cool their data centers or run the organizations desktop computers, monitors, phone systems or other technology apparatus.

The utility bill, in many cases, never crosses the IT manager’s desk.

Out of sight, out of mind

The survey of 128 IT managers during the fourth quarter of 2007, found that 44% do not consider utilities when preparing their IT budgets. The remaining 56% include all or part of their IT utilities expenses in their IT budgets.

The rising cost of energy will likely make conservation a higher priority for most organizations. If IT managers have to control energy costs, the budgeting system can hold them accountable for it.

As one the largest consumers of energy in an organization, IT managers will have a new opportunity to show the value they bring to the table.

Tags: bills, cooling systems, data center, data retnetion, energy, servers, storage