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April 16, 2009

IT Study: Virtualization, Video Conferencing Can Save Big Money

Looking forward, the IT industry can expect virtualization to dramatically reduce energy use and hardware outlays, and increased use of teleconferencing will result in less business travel, reducing companies’ carbon footprint.

The server virtualization software market will grow at 28 percent, compounded annually, from 2008 through the end of 2013, advancing from $1.8 billion now to $6.2 billion, according to the “Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2009 and Beyond: Where Is the Money?” report, from Gartner Research.

By the end of 2102, the report suggests that video conferencing will steal away $3.5 billion in annual revenue from the travel and hospitality industry, helping companies communicate with less impact on their bottom line, and contributing less carbon dioxide emissions from traveling.

Through 2012, Gartner predicts that major computer vendors will recycle only one PC for every five that they sell.

As a further way for companies to reduce costs and energy use, by the end of 2013 Gartner predicts 40 percent of knowledge workers around the globe will have abandoned or removed their desk phones.

Here are Gartner’s key IT recommendations for companies:

• Begin experimenting with cloud computing.
• Move from rationalization and consolidation to a platform replacement and hosting strategy.
• Put in place sustainable and cost-cutting initiatives that reduce travel and recycle PC resources.

Companies and governments increasingly are finding ways to reduce energy used on computers.

In Brazil, a virtualization solution, as compared to a traditional PC-per-workstation solution, the project will save the Brazilian government about 60 percent in up-front costs, and 80 percent in annual power savings, according to a news release.

Additionally, Microsoft has released the results of a comparative carbon footprint study that quantifies the environmental benefits by providing software online, instead of on a disc, with associated packaing. The digital distribution study, based on the online download of 10 million copies of Microsoft Office 2007, avoided eight times the amount of carbon emissions, or reduced the total tons of carbon emissions by 88 percent, compared to producing and shipping a DVD and its associated packaging through traditional retail distribution channels.

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