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When research firm IDC last year launched a program called ETAS (Emerging Technology Advisory Services) in the Asia-Pacific region to identify the most promising trends and issues reshaping the IT industry in the next three to five years, the global drive to save energy and reduce pollution easily took the pride of place.
"We have received a number of inquiries from customers wanting to know how green initiatives will impact their IT business," says Kitty Fok, vice-president of IDC Greater China research. "I think the trend of green IT is still in its infancy but will see huge growth in the next couple of years, making it a perfect subject for research companies like us."
With rising energy prices and increasing environmental awareness beginning to impact the business models of traditional smokestack industries like manufacturing and heavy engineering, researchers and IT industry players have started taking note of it as well. At industry forums and product launches by companies such as IBM, HP and Dell in China in the past few months, top officials -from global CEOs to regional directors - have all been stressing green IT as one of the most important trends deserving closer attention.
"We have seen a dramatic increase in the interest level of customers - whether they are from the public sector, multinationals or even smaller companies - who are keen to learn how to utilize green IT," says Michel Dell, CEO of Dell Inc. "I think it is a global trend and I definitely see it on the rise here in China."
Too hot
Green IT first emerged as a solution for companies troubled by skyrocketing electricity bills and hardware maintenance costs as a result of expansion of their faster, but more energy-hungry, IT equipment such as servers and data centers. According to Sun Microsystems, a typical rack of servers installed in data centers just two years ago might have consumed a modest 2 kW of power while producing 40 watt of heat per square foot. Newer, high-density racks, expected to be in use by the end of the decade, could easily consume as much as 25 kW and generate as much as 500 watt of heat per square foot.
As a result of these superfast energy-guzzlers, electricity is set to become the second highest in terms of costs in 70 percent of the world's data centers by 2009 - trailing personnel costs but well ahead of IT hardware costs - according to research firm Gartner.
In China, it could be worse. The country's booming economy in recent decades has prompted the government, local companies and multinationals to significantly increase their IT investments to support larger business demands, making the country one of the world's fastest growing markets for servers and data centers.
Such a large IT deployment has mounted more pressure on China's energy-thirsty economy, with power consumption increasing by more than 10 percent annually in the past five years, according to Zhang Guobao, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Although the government has invested a lot in building up power stations to fuel economic growth, companies in some Chinese coastal provinces still have to face regular power cuts because of electricity shortage.
"For many companies in China, especially in the southern provinces, the main hindrance is the electricity crunch," says the IDC's Fok. Energy expenses on servers' power and cooling systems in the country reached $1.9 billion last year, she adds, creating a huge need for green IT products and services.
New solutions
Faced with surging electricity bills, many companies are already seeking solutions, creating new business opportunities. Major server producers such as IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Inspur and Lenovo have all released their green servers and data centers in China, with energy savings of approximately 20 to 40 percent.
Chinese search engine Baidu in December announced it is establishing a joint lab with Intel in energy saving to better sustain the company's nearly tripling computing capacity every year. Last year, IT giant IBM even unveiled "Project Big Green", in which the company will invest $1 billion every year across its businesses to increase energy efficiency. IBM also plans to consolidate nearly 4,000 computer servers in six locations worldwide into about 30 refrigerator-sized mainframes, saving an estimated $200 million in operating costs.
"By going green, we want to help our customers in China to optimize their IT infrastructure," says DC Chien, CEO of IBM Greater China. "This is one of our major focuses in the next couple of years."
Government endorsement is also a trigger to develop green IT in China. In the five years leading up to 2010, the government has pledged to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent, or 4 percent every year, and reduce pollutant emissions by 10 percent, creating a huge market for energy-saving products. The top legislature in June also passed a draft amendment to the Law on Conserving Energy, which bans the government from purchasing high energy-consuming equipment.
But though there is an increasing demand for green IT, experts say its applications still need time to pick up because most companies are yet to include energy consumption costs in their IT budgets. "In most companies, the chief operating officer is responsible for daily energy consumption, not the chief technical officer. That makes many companies unwilling to pay extra for green products because they do not see an instant decrease in their budget," Fok says.
But Fok believes that as the government issues more regulations relating to energy saving and environmental protection, green IT applications will see an explosive growth in China in the next two to three years.
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