#1 Strategic Technology for 2008? Green IT
Interesting article recapping Gartner's Top 10 strategic technologies of 2008 by Jon Brodkin of Network World. Maybe the most interesting aspect is Green IT taking the first overall spot in the list.
There has been a lot of talk about Green IT over the past 18 months, especially in terms of data center technologies. The data center has traditionally been a huge consumer of electricity, making it an ideal candidate to get a green face lift. Some companies have taken an early lead in touting the energy-saving attributes of their hardware and appliances (Rackable Systems being one), making it a one-two message punch of cost savings and being more environmentally friendly. This may be the most effective way to communicate the green impact of a technology, but it gives a buyer a business case to make the purchase, since getting more green will not always pass muster with a CFO or CIO signing on a purchase order.
It also means that a tipping point has been reached in the market. Some companies used to be afraid to market products with environmental messages because it crossed the taboo business/politics line. Now, however, marketers at both vendors and end-user organizations have realized that there is tangible marketing and brand value to saying that a company is going more green in their practices.
The next 12 months will be interesting in the PR world as we see more and more companies pushing the green aspects of their products and the resulting installations at customer sites. Would anyone be surprised if "we're more green than them" becomes one of the top differentiating messages among competing companies in 2008? I wouldn't.
Tags: green, green IT, renewable energy
Posted by Jason Morris on October 14, 2007 at 10:00 AM
