HP Survey: CIOs consider the environmental impact of technology, provided the price is right

Whilst many European businesses are taking an interest in the environmental impact of their technology, the vast majority of companies will only make changes when they are seen to cut costs. This is one of the key findings of the 2008 Pressure Point Index survey on Green Technology and Data Centre Transformation released today by HP⁽¹⁾. The survey found that although 81% of senior technology decision makers believed the environmental impact of technology was an issue for their organisation, 58% of respondents would only make changes that had a positive affect on their bottom line.

Encouragingly, just 18% of companies surveyed stated that the environment was not an important issue for them, with 68% of businesses across Europe measuring the environmental impact of their technology processes. David Concordel, Director of Marketing and Strategy, HP Services, EMEA said, “These results are a positive indication that the green message is filtering through to all departments within organisations. The fact that over two thirds of businesses are measuring the environmental impact of their technology is an impressive statistic. At HP we have been researching more efficient methods of power and cooling in the data centre since the early 1990s, with the aim of enabling our customers to reduce their environmental impact whilst also delivering the business benefits of improved flexibility and lower operating costs”.

88% of those surveyed agree that companies waste valuable time and resource maintaining antiquated and inefficient data centres, and 85% believe that consolidating and modernising data centres is both relevant and important.  One of the principle benefits of data centre transformation was cited as being mitigating environmental impact.

Respondents stated that the chief benefits of data centre transformation as: ability to meet future demands for increased data centre capacity (87%); increasing availability (86%); mitigating environmental impact (79%) and lowering operational (85%) and real estate (76%) costs.  Although benefits are significant, respondents identified potential risks as being: concerns about move and migration risks (77%); lack of sufficient capital budget (76%); fear of security risks (76%); multiplicity of managers and data centres (74%); lack of in house knowledge or expertise (62%); difficulty articulating and demonstrating business benefits to management (61%). 

Jean-Paul Wagner, Vice President, Technology Services, EMEA at HP said, “Our customers clearly recognise the importance and business benefits of managing and transforming their data centres. At the same time, they are grappling with the challenges involved.  HP’s expertise, along with the right products and services, can help allay the risks and deliver the benefits of this important work”. 

HP commissioned Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates to conduct the 2008 Pressure Point Index survey. The survey methodology consisted of 234 in-depth interviews among senior business and IT decision-makers from companies with over 1000 employees across the UK, France, Germany and Italy during Nov-Dec 2007.   Copies of the full report are available upon request.

HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $107.7 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended Jan. 31, 2008. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

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© 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
03/2008