Study Reveals Data Centers Want to Go Green

Yesterday, data center provider Digital Realty Trust published the results of a survey among European IT professionals. Only upper management at large companies were surveyed in what is considered to be one of the largest data center studies to date.

According to Jim Smith, CTO of Digital Realty Trust:

This survey clearly shows that there is a high level of concern about the impact of Green regulations on datacentre facilities. While the new Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) regulations in the E.U. address a number of questions about the new rules, new concerns about how companies will achieve compliance have arisen. That uncertainty is reflected in these results in terms of how the new rules will impact operations, finance and customer relations.

More than half (60%) of data centers said they have some sort of green strategy in place, with a similar number of respondents (55%) saying they would not invest in a data center with no green initiative.

Data centers are not interested in going green for environmental reasons, but mainly because of the immense cost associated with powering server hardware. In fact, the cost to power a server over its lifespan can often rival its purchase price.

Photo: Flickr