IDC Finds Power Management, Automation, and Virtualization Software Playing a Critical Role in ‘Greening’ Datacenters

Singapore and Hong Kong, December 9, 2008 – According to IDC's latest research, “Green IT Software – Nutritious Supplements for Your Datacenter” (Doc#AP322309Q), Green IT software can enable significant economical benefits as well as environmental sustainability through the efficient management of existing hardware or services within datacenters. With rising power costs in datacenter operations a top concern of IT decision makers across the Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region, applications that can help to better manage power and cooling and improve management, automation, load and capacity administration of these servers, will be in demand.

"As businesses in APEJ continue to grow, power consumption in energy hungry datacenters also increases. Green IT technologies has become even more appealing as businesses look towards energy efficient solutions to reduce power consumption and to alleviate the costs," says Adren Lim, Market Analyst of IDC’s Asia/Pacific Software Research. IDC has classified these applications into three main categories: power monitoring and management tools, asset management and automation tools, and server virtualization software.

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Q. Will your organization be doing a formal assessment of your datacenter(s) with the goal of reducing power consumption over the next 12 months?

Through the recent survey, IDC’s Asia/Pacific Green Poll, IDC finds Green IT technology gaining strong momentum and mindshare across the region. This is largely driven by benefits from cost savings, followed by corporate social responsibility (CSR) and compliance. This result was based on the strong response of over 75% of the surveyed population agreeing that cost savings was the main reason for them to invest in green IT technology. An interesting point to note is that respondents also revealed the level of "greenness" portrayed by the IT suppliers had become increasingly important when they made buying decision on IT-related materials.

While mainstream green IT in the datacenter is largely a combined effort of more energy-efficient hardware, best practices, and consultation services, software is playing an increasingly important role in facilitating the whole "green engine" to achieve business and environmental sustainability. Green IT software helps in virtualizing, monitoring, measuring, and automating tasks, etc., that would otherwise require manual involvement and incur higher costs.

"A large portion of Green IT practices and supporting software revolve around virtualization products, but equally important, is the management of these consolidated virtual and physical assets that will bring value through lower power, hardware, and manpower costs," Adren added.

IDC's Green IT software research focuses on software offerings by key vendors that fall into three categories – power monitoring and management tools, asset management and automation tools, and server virtualization software, while also providing opinions on the benefits of using Green IT software to datacenter operators. For more information about purchasing the research, please contact Elizabeth Shunmugam at +603-2169 7536 or eshunmugam@idc.com or Barry Lim at +603-2169 7532 or blim@idc.com.