Three-quarters of organisations will have implemented a data centre infrastructure sustainability programme by 2027, up from less than 5% in 2022.
That’s according to Gartner, which flagged up cost optimisation and stakeholder pressures as the key factors behind the predicted increase.
“Responsibilities for sustainability are increasingly being passed down from CIOs to infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders to improve IT’s environmental performance, particularly around data centres,” said Autumn Stanish, Senior Principal Analyst at the market watcher.
“This has led many down the path of greater spend and investment in environmental solutions, but environmental impact shouldn’t be the only focus. Sustainability can also have a significant positive impact on non-environmental factors, such as brand, innovation, resilience and attracting talent.”
Indirect benefits
Most benefits from having a more sustainable infrastructure and operations strategy are indirect, Gartner added, citing a survey of 221 respondents in North America, Europe and APAC it conducted in the second half of 2022.
When asked to pick the top three benefits their organisation had achieved to date from their sustainability programme, by far and away the most respondents – namely 55% – chose increased company brand/reputation (see below).
Reduced costs finished tenth in the pecking order, with Gartner claiming that the most effective action I&O leaders can take for the environment and their budget is to defer purchasing new equipment and better manage, optimise or redeploy what they already have.
According to the market watcher, organisations can generate up to 60% in cost savings by simply extending product life spans from three to five years. It flagged up better server utilisation and storage capacity as another way to reduce waste and save money.
