July 22, 2008

Top 10 Pressures CIOs Face To Increase Efficiency

CIOs are being pushed to increase efficiency and cut costs. Where’s the pressure coming from? Here’s a top ten list from PC World.

1.    CFOs
Reducing the amount of electricity or chilled water used in their data center operations can contribute money straight to where the CFO wants to see it - the company’s bottom line

2.    Electric Utilities
The shortage of available power from utilities is why data center operators are merging facilities and using more watts used per square foot. It is also why corporate IT buyers are considering new metrics such as performance per watt of servers and desktops

3.    CEOs
Under pressure from outside directors and shareholders to reduce carbon footprints, CEOs hand that pressure down to their staff, such as CIOs, who are now switching their IT operations to use more sustainable power sources.

4.    Lawmakers
In the U.S. the regulatory pressure on CIOs is less than in Europe because legislation comparable to the cap-and-trade program doesn’t  exist–yet. But some cutting-edge companies are looking at ways to cut back their emissions before regulation passes.

5.    IT Vendors
Hardware and software manufactures are a step ahead of most CIOs and IT buyers and are hyping up reasons why consumers (and CIOs) should become sustainable. One area in particular is the development of metrics that CIOs can use to measure energy efficiency in their IT and data center.

6.    The Media
They not only raises climate change issues but stimulate debate and encourages investment in environmental technologies. They also report on CIOs who don’t make environmentally sound choices.

7.    Competitors
Competitive pressure on energy efficiency and carbon-footprint reduction will increase because the most active companies in theses areas will be the most profitable.

8.    Generation Y
Teenagers and 20-somethings are increasingly putting pressure on companies to green their operations.

9.    Employees
Grassroots efforts by employees are putting pressure on leadership to create more environmentally friendly programs such as recycling, or turning lights off at night.

10.    The Community
Community leaders are beginning to pressure local companies to improve their sustainability. The pressure isn’t immediately impacting CIOs, but will most likely increase in the future.

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