Do Data Center Customers Really Care About Energy Efficiency?
CHEYENNE, Wy.—Big tech companies, including public cloud service providers, have recently been making large investments in renewable energy that have generated a lot of attention. This begs the question: How much do colocation and cloud customers actually care about whether or not the IT equipment they use is housed in a “green” data center? Data center provider Green House Data recently surveyed IT professionals who help make IT and infrastructure decisions for data center customers. While the respondents generally agreed that operational cost savings that come with having a green data center make business sense, the consensus is that most IT departments don’t really look at energy efficiency or sustainability when comparing different service providers. Less than one third of respondents said they would choose green data centers. Environmental impact was a “very important” factor for only 27% of respondents; and total energy consumption was very important for 33%. No respondent said overall environmental impact was a primary focus. The survey concluded that users tend to care more about energy efficiency as a vehicle to deliver cost savings than they do about their service providers’ carbon footprints.
