Wednesday 24 October 2007

HypeWatch: Green IT

As Jim puts it rather plainly Analysts are increasing coverage or environmental issues. So the guys at Books 24x7 ("a leading SaaS provider of on-demand business, technical and engineering content" -interesting combination of software as a service and content in the same phrase...), following the hype, have launched a new new "Greening of IT" blog."

ARmadgeddon's take: Green IT is the 00'ies Y2K and currently very much in its "Peak of Inflated Expectations" . Indeed, it seems Marc has already jumped on the GIT bandwagon -although maybe a little late?

3 comments:

alan pelz-sharpe said...

I was at the Storage Expo Event in London last week - the Green IT section was one of the best attended sectors at what was already a busy show.....
My take for what it's worth is that most analysts just look at software and services, when you get into the hardware green IT (power consumption and heat reduction etc) is a massive issue that now has a label and focus..

ARonaut said...

Yes, but it's also much hyped and there's little new news: for hardware, electricity consumption was always a key factor in TCO consumption -remember the water-cooled mainframes days?

On the other side, things like mandatory recycling and tracking will be part of business-as-usual processes, just like 4 digits dates format.

Or are we too cynical?

BFrench said...

I do find your position overly cynical. I wouldn't characterize any analyst research that I've seen as "green washing" (the eco version of "white washing").

You need to cut to the chase: do you, or do you not, believe that technology can change the way we think about the world and impact it? In this case, the context is energy consumption and pollution.

If for you, the answer is no -- tech cannot be an important part of achieving such things -- then no analyst research or advisory is going to impress you. It's a foregone conclusion, given your starting place.

If the answer is yes, then it's worthwhile to articulate where and how analysts can best participate in a global, cross-industry transition to more sustainable tools and business practices.