73% say Energy Efficiency is Key Factor for Green Datacenters

May 13, 2009

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A new study from Digital Realty Trust Inc., a wholesale datacenter provider, indicates that 73 percent of the survey participants identified energy efficiency as the key aspect of a green datacenter.

Digital Realty Trust’s annual study of green datacenter trends in the United States, conducted by research firm Campos Research & Analysis, indicates that significant shifts have occurred over the past 12 months in corporate green datacenter strategies. The study is based on a survey of 100 senior decision makers at large U.S. corporations who are responsible for their companies’ datacenter and green IT strategies.

This year’s study highlights companies’ concerns about potential government regulation and how it would impact their datacenter operations, compared to last year’s study when the need for clearer standards and best practices for green datacenters was their top concern, says Jim Smith, CTO for Digital Realty Trust, San Francisco, Calif.

Key findings include:

69 percent of survey participants said they were extremely or very concerned about government regulation
81 percent of survey participants said that carbon credits are now part of their green IT strategy, compared to only 18 percent in 2008
53 percent said that the industry now has a clear definition of what makes a datacenter green, compared to 82 percent in the 2008 survey who said that there was no clear definition
73 percent of survey participants identified “energy efficiency” as the key aspect of a green datacenter

To benchmark a datacenter’s energy costs, Techmanic.com says there are two ways to do it. One method developed by the Uptime Institute, called the Corporate Average Datacenter Efficiency (CADE), measures energy efficiency, while the second method is called Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), developed by the Green Grid.

Results from a simultaneous study of green trends in the European datacenter market also indicate that companies have increased concerns about government regulation, says Digital Realty Trust. Nearly 70 percent of companies surveyed report that they are extremely concerned or very concerned with the potential impact of green regulations on datacenters. They also view energy efficiency as the key criteria for a green datacenter.

Key findings include:

60 percent of surveyed companies now have green datacenter strategies in place
57 percent felt there was now a clear definition of what constitutes a green datacenter
55 percent would reject a provider with no green strategy

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