Green IT Now Essential IT Practice

News Release

Symantec Study Reveals Green IT Now Essential IT Practice

Respondents indicate Green IT budgets rising and IT willing to pay more up-front for energy efficient solutions

Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the findings of its 2009 Worldwide Green IT Report, a follow up to the Green Data Center report released in late 2007. According to survey data, senior-level IT executives report significant interest in green IT strategies and solutions, attributed to both cost reduction and environmental responsibility. The data points to a shift from implementing “green” technologies primarily for cost reduction purposes, to a more balanced awareness of also improving the organisation’s environmental standing.

Ninety-seven percent of respondents, both globally and within Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), state they are at least discussing a green IT strategy, while 45 percent globally and 46 percent in ANZ have already implemented green IT initiatives. IT decision makers are increasingly justifying green IT solutions by more than cost and IT efficiency benefits. Respondents cited key drivers as reducing electricity consumption (90 percent globally and 81 percent in ANZ), reducing cooling costs (87 percent globally and 78 percent in ANZ) and corporate pressure to be “green” (86 percent globally and in ANZ).

Furthermore, 83 percent of respondents globally and 87 percent in ANZ are now responsible or cross-charged for the electricity consumed in the data center—bringing visibility and accountability to bear on the ultimate consumer of these resources.

“The survey indicates the awareness and adoption of Green technologies and practices have significantly increased over the past year. The Green conscience of corporate Australia and New Zealand is growing and businesses are taking proactive steps to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint,” said Craig Scroggie, vice president and managing director, Symantec Pacific region. “This survey demonstrates the increasing importance of developing a Green strategy that delivers both environmental and financial benefits. Those businesses that demonstrate sound sustainability practices will be the ones to thrive in years to come.”

“With the vast majority of respondents now responsible for the electricity costs of their data center, IT departments have emerged as a driving force in implementing green IT technologies – not only for energy and costs savings benefits, but also as a result of proposed legislative requirements and a sense of environmental responsibility to their communities.”

Budgets, Spending on ‘Green’ Solutions Increase
IT executives report a significant increase in green IT budgets. Seventy-three percent globally and 74 percent in ANZ expect an increase in green IT budgets over the next 12 months, while 19 percent globally and 23 percent in ANZ expect increases of more than 10 percent. The typical respondent reported spending on average USD$21 to 27 million on data center electricity.
At the same time, IT is willing to pay a premium for energy efficient products. Two-thirds of respondents globally and more than three-quarters in ANZ said they would pay at least 10 percent more, while 41 percent globally and 42 percent in ANZ are willing to pay at least 20 percent more. Additionally, 89 percent of respondents both globally and within ANZ said IT product efficiency is either important or very important.

IT Central to Enterprise Green Efforts

As organisations continue to adopt programmes and practices to drive environmental responsibility throughout the enterprise, IT is increasingly important to the broader enterprise “green” efforts. Perhaps the strongest indicator, 83 percent globally and 87 percent of IT departments in Australia and New Zealand report they are now responsible or cross-charged for electricity, providing a strong motivator for IT to reduce energy costs.
Furthermore, 89 percent globally and 86 percent in ANZ think IT should play a very or extremely significant role in ‘green’ efforts and 94 percent globally and 83 percent in ANZ have a corporate green advocate, with more than one-fifth globally and 38 percent in ANZ focusing exclusively on IT initiatives.

Core Green IT Initiatives

IT professionals are regularly deploying several key initiatives for green IT purposes. Replacing old equipment was the most popular strategy, with 95 percent globally and 99 percent in ANZ reporting new energy efficient equipment as part of their strategy, followed by monitoring power consumption (94 percent globally and 96 percent in ANZ), server virtualisation (94 percent globally and in ANZ), and server consolidation (93 percent globally and in ANZ). Additionally, more than half (57 percent globally) of respondents see software-as-a-service offerings as “green” solutions.

About Symantec’s Green IT Report
Symantec’s Green IT Report is the result of research conducted in March 2009 by Applied Research, which surveyed enterprise IT executives, including vice presidents, directors and C-level IT executives. The report was designed to gauge respondents’ interest in and plans for deploying strategies and solutions to help reduce e-waste associated with computer hardware, software, facilities and planning, and ultimately reduce the organisation’s footprint. The study included 1,052 respondents in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, the U.K., Brazil, Mexico, Australia, India, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, New Zealand and China.

Symantec helps IT decision makers to reduce energy consumption and increase space utilisation by providing solutions that increase desktop, server and storage efficiencies. Symantec software enables IT organisations to undertake server and storage consolidation and utilisation initiatives while providing a software infrastructure that enables IT managers to select the server and hardware of their choice. By increasing storage utilisation and by helping customers with storage-tiering to reduce the need for power-hungry premium storage hardware, this software helps organisations reduce power consumption and floor space. Additionally, data deduplication technology can reduce the disk-based requirements for backup, while other software helps to manage server consolidation and storage resources. Power management software provided by Symantec enables IT professionals to better control desktops’ energy usage by enabling power-down settings. Finally, Symantec offers services to help companies optimise and streamline their data center through data center design consulting services.

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