Analysis: ECO-it's first five years [IT Environment]

A lot of data has flowed under the bridge and across it since green IT started to find its way onto the green enterprise agenda; IT professionals can allow themselves a plaudit or two for showing leadership here, because it is through the 'greening' of the IT function that most organisational carbon management programmes entered corporate consciousness. At a time when the remit of the IT function itself was being undermined by executive forces alleging that IT was neither flexible nor amenable to the needs of 'the business', the environmentalist debate gave IT heads a platform to re-assert their status in the management hierarchy. It also restored some of the political clout IT formerly enjoyed: it was re-empowered to drive through changes.The economy is looking healthier now, and the green IT 'agenda' has moved on since 2005. The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme legislation has introduced a legal motivation for organisations to review their energy usage and take steps to implement policies and procedures that make carbon control intrinsic to the articles of their governance. However, as the recent Green Enterprise World Forum showed, the IT industry has passed beyond the awareness phase and must now concentrate its talents on shaping the the future green IT.The pursuit of green IT is perforce subject also to changes in working practices. The gradual but steady trend toward the so-called mobile enterprise is going to have important repercussions on the way IT is provisioned to business users and on the way it consumes energy. With mobile devices enabling large percentages of the workforce to work away from an office base, the requirement to provision multiple desktops (or docking stations), each with a network connection and power source, will become less crucial; and printer needs will decrease.