GREEN IT IN INDIA : BLOOMINGNOT YETBOOMING

Green IT or eco-friendly IT infrastructure in recent times has been a
buzzword in the industry. While there are signs that awareness is building, it
is still in a stage of blooming but not yet booming in India.

According to Anand Naik, Director-Systems Engineering, Symantec India, “Green
IT is in its nascent stage, but it has created a buzz in the market.” Naresh
Chandra Singh, Principal Analyst, Gartner agreed, “The adoption of green
technology initiatives is only taking shape and is still in the initial stages
in India. There are very few who under stand the extent of IT infrastructure's
contribution to power usage, carbon emissions and how much of an environment
pollutant it is. There is very little data to show the impact of IT on the
environment. Power consumption is just one aspect, the type of materials used to
manufacture the hardware and packaging material also needs to be checked,
whether it is hazardous in nature or dangerous to health or the environment.”

Talking about the in creasing consciousness of demanding products that impact
the ecology positively, Manoj Mehta, Country Manager-India and SAARC Operations,
Dassault Systèmes Solid Works Corporation said, “In the current global business
ecosystem, being a responsible company is often synonymous with success. From
share holders to consumers, everyone is increasingly demanding products that are
more environmental conscious, if not100 percent green. But why is this new way
of thinking so economically important? The answer is that demand for natural
resources is growing faster than the available supply, driving up their costs,
at the same time when new environmental directives must also be met.” Seconding,
Sanjay Deshmukh, Area VP-Citrix, India Subcontinent said, “Eco-friendly
computing is definitely emerging as a key priority for IT decision-makers,
following in creasing awareness on the need for environment-friendly business
practices as well as the need for novel solutions to overcome rising energy
costs. The benefits of energy conservation not with standing, organizations
would also have to be prepared for stricter government regulations on green
practices that are likely to be enforced in the near future. With paucity of
power across the country and tariffs going up, there is a crying need to address
these across the board and IT's contribution to this is computing environment;
after saving a considerable amount of money they are not recognized for their
efforts due to the absence of formal green IT benchmarking metrics, along with
an energy roadmap. Companies are unwilling to take on an additional cost burden
for replacing their existing infrastructure. Most organizations are yet to
ascertain the impact of green IT on their business setup. Identifying in
efficiencies in the overall ecosystem is both time consuming and costly. The
impact of green IT is not as much as it should have been. It is because there
are no clear laws in place that can force the corporate sector to look at green
IT. Chandra of Gartner was in agreement, “The lack of regulatory compliancenorms
in India act as a roadblock as far as adoption of greener technology is
concerned. In the US and EU for instance, there are strong regulatory bodies
that look to ensure that compliance norms are done by companies.”

However, Deshmukh also felt that whatever happened in the last year or so,
with the global economy going down has forced the IT industry to look at how to
work in a more efficient manner. “This efficiency has bolstered the agenda
around green IT a lot more than what the legal framework has. People are not
only looking at capital expenses, but at operating expenses as well,” he said.
“The intensity around green IT has led to awareness among the industry leaders
and the implementation has started in a small, but purposeful manner, but is yet
to progress in an organized manner. There is still ambiguity on the concept of
green IT and the industry has to be educated about the specific benefits of the
same,” said Gopalratnam of Cisco.

SP ANGLE

While the buzz around Green IT exists, what do solution providers and S Is
in the country feel about the same? Saket Kapur of Green Vision, a Delhi-based
SP said, “We have no issues selling Green IT solutions, however, we have not
seena demand in the market for Green IT specifically. The focus for customers is
still on how they can get the products at the best possible price.” KL Lalani of
Kolkata-based Lalani Infotech said, “Weare not seeing business from Green IT as
of now. There is no demand as such, and even if it has to be done, it will be a
push product. Talking about green is a good marketing concept though.” Another
SP from the city, Vinay Dugarof Supreme Technologies commented, “We have not
done any business from Green IT as yet except for a few green monitors from
Viewsonic and Samsung. In the future, however, there will be a scope for such
products, but it is still far from actually happening on the ground.”

Yatin Parker of Mumbai-based Parkspan Computers said, “Eco-friendlyor Green
IT is just more or less a marketing gimmick at this point in time. While there
is awareness about environmental issues, most corporates are still focused on
just the price of the product and the service they can get. I have not had
anyone ask me specifically for Green IT products, however, if customers are able
to get a green IT product at the same price as they would for a non-green
product, then they would opt for the greener device. But again, price is a more
important criteria.” Aniruddha Nenavlikar, Directorof Pune-based Monarch
Technologies, admitted, “Frankly till today, I am yet to do any business from
Green IT products. I believe this initial acceptance will start first with MNCs
and later maybe Indian companies will also follow suit. Unless there are
standardized policies in place, this will not really take off. I feel with
virtualization as a green technology, power savings can be made and the value of
that needs to be communicated to the end customer. I recently had two potential
deals, which I lost because I was not able to really show the value in terms of
cost savings as well as the green element of the datacenter virtualization
project. Now, I am working in that direction and slowly I am sure, I can convert
customer inquiries to deals.”

KV Jagannath, MD, Choice Solutions, based out of Hyderabad said, “Green IT is
a good thing to talk about, but we have not converted it into a commercial
possibility yet. In the near future, we hope to see business from this space. In
the last two years, consciousness about the company's effect on nature has
increased and I feel that large organizations would surely feel that
responsibility toward the environment, however, among SMBs, it would not affect
them so much as they cannot afford much of capital investment. Technologies like
server and desktop virtualization as well as grid computing will help
rationalize power expenditure, cooling requirement, generator and UPS capacity.
The impacton bottom line is the single most important consideration when
companies look to adopt greener IT infrastructure.”

Prashant Kulkarni, Director, At hais Pechnosoft shared about how he does
business from Green IT, “My company deals in proactive managed services
software, which helps control energy expenditure and helps the management get a
view on how energy is being utilized in the company. Recently, Installed this
system at a Network Operating Center designed for 1,000 PCsor so.” Another SP
from Hyderabad, PM Prabhu, CEO, Pam Network said, “I deal with Siemens building
technology systems for energy management. I do this for building projects and
this is especially useful for them as it isestimated that nearly 40 percent of
the power cost is because of the use of ACs. A lot of my clients are from the IT
side as the cooling requirement can be quitehigh for such companies. I will be
closing a deal with TCS shortly.”

Devender Taneja of PC Solutions, an SP, based out of the capital said,
“Thereare different types of customers when it comes to Green IT. One is the
knowledgeable sort, who values the impact Green IT can have, but does not have
the cost comfort to actually purchase. A second type is those who are willing to
buy up to their limit of comfort. The third is the one, who voluntarily buys
Green IT as an initiative to impact the ecology and do so keeping in mind the
social angle. Hence, my point is that often customers are a ware, but the
willingness to act on that awareness may be missing or the degree may be varying
depending on the customer. I believe virtualization will lead the way as far as
adoption of Green IT is concerned, as it would mean lesser power consumption
resulting in a good RoI for the customer as well as help him fulfill his
obligation to society.

Finally, vendors feel that partners can play a role in evangelizing green in
the market. “We are working closely wit hour VARs to build awareness among our
customers,” said Mehta of Solid Works. Symantec's Naik also felt that channel
partners can play an important role in taking this message and initiative a head
with the customers. Cisco's Gopalratnam said, “Our customers are fast be coming
environmental conscious and hence, increasingly opt for green products.
Partners, who recognize this need in the market and who can effectively
designand deploy solutions that help address this, definitely stand to gain a
lead over others in the market. Further, with Cisco's focus on delivering
solutions around green, partners can work as consultants to customers, the re
by, providing opportunities to enhance their profitability.” Citrix's Deshmukh
advised, “Channels have to educate themselves and position the benefits of
adopting Green IT practices as a solution approach rather than a point product
approach. The key for channel partners is to educate themselves and then their
customers on how adopting the best-of-breed Green IT solutions their customers
can save money and manage their IT infrastructure more efficiently.”

JOHN JACOB

johnj@cybermedia.co.in