Special focus: green IT

The IET has launched its new Information and Communications Sector to become the Institution’s principle focal point for technology professionals involved in the field.

Google plans to digitise a quarter of a million books from the British Library's collections in an ambitious books project.

Cities with high levels of ICT maturity better manage issues such as environmental management, infrastructure, public security, healthcare, and education.

UK infrastructure design and planning needs to take into account the impact of climate change, a report says.

The Green Investment Bank must fund new innovations to reduce energy emissions in manufacturing, argue engineers.

Mobile, wired and home networks may have to be completely rethought to end an exponential rise in the energy used by communication, according to an industry group.

Governance is playing an increasingly important part of information security within enterprises.

The final instalment of Cisco's Connected World Report suggests that IT departments continue to adopt new technologies but struggle to maintain security and data governance policies.

IBM is targeting data centre sustainability with containerised data centres that save on air-conditioning costs by using ambient air for cooling, plus analytical software for better planning.

The latest version of nlyte’s data centre infrastructure management software DCIM 6.0 does more to help data centres managers forecast capacity and billing requirements.

Worldwide enterprise IT spending is forecast to reach $2.5 trillion next year - a 3.1 per cent increase from a $2.4 trillion outlay in 2010, according to analyst Gartner, itself a 2.4 per cent increase from 2009.

According to a survey of IT professionals conducted by consultancy Externus, only 13 per cent of organisations employ a dedicated ‘green’ member of staff.

Online über-brands Google and Ebay have been trialling fuel cell technology from Bloom Energy to power their buildings and IT infrastructure.

Nearly 80 per cent of senior IT decision makers say that their companies spent up to 25 per cent of their total IT budgets on energy-related costs, compared to 44 per cent for whom that was the case in a similar survey conducted last year, claims a survey by data centre specialist Brocade Communications.

Only one-in-eight data centre managers cite a desire to 'go Green' as the key reason for implementing energy-saving solutions, a survey of registered attendees at Data Centres World has revealed, falling from one-in-three this time in 2008.

Small and mid-sized firms are more open to emerging technologies and the benefits of green IT than their global competitors, according to research by industry association CompTIA.

Enterprise IT users are being confused by vendors over-focusing on green issues as the industry changes its focus to environmentally friendly IT, a report by Gartner says.

Research undertaken among 100 UK CIOs companies employing more than 1000 people reveals that 76 per cent believe that the carbon footprint of outsourced IT operations should still count towards the overall footprint of their organisation.

The transition to a low-carbon economy will bring big financial gains to the societies that undertake it, according to author James Martin in an exclusive interview for IET.tv’s IT Channel.

Senior IT professionals are becoming less concerned about the impact their businesses are having on the environment. According to a survey by Version One, 86 per cent of senior IT professionals are concerned about the negative impact their company is having on the environment, down 12 per cent compared with an identical survey carried out by Version One in February 2007.