Schneider Electric™, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, today released findings from three independent research studies commissioned to better understand the maturity of sustainability initiatives within IT and data center organizations, and more specifically, where the IT and data center industry stand in achieving this vision of net zero IT operations. The company today revealed the initial findings which exposed a sustainability action gap through a press conference in Delhi.
451 Research, Forrester and Canalys independently collected data from more than 3,000 global participants, include the largest colocation and cloud providers, IT solution providers and IT professionals across many segments and organization sizes. Overall, findings consistently demonstrate that across the data center and IT industry, there is discrepancy between where companies think they are and implementing full life cycle sustainability programs across their IT infrastructure. According to the 451 Research findings, in surveying 1,100 IT professionals responsible for core and distributed IT, whereas 26% of participants self-identified as having a full lifecycle sustainability program covering all the infrastructure, only 14% are taking the actions to have implemented the programs. The analysis further identifies 22% as not addressing sustainability as a major focus, though may have efficiency initiatives to improve specific areas of operation. This showcases that while many companies are formulating their sustainability strategy and deciding on investment priorities, action plans are not always being implemented.
Sachin Bhalla, Vice President and Country General Manager, Secure Power Division, India and SAARC said, “At Schneider Electric, our steadfast commitment in powering efficiency and integrating sustainability with innovation directs our approach towards creating future-forward solutions to transform businesses. Aligned with this vision, we are determined to bring our combined expertise in IT and sustainability to define the future of green technology. Today, there is an urgent need to integrate sustainability and resiliency in data centers and edge IT to achieve the nation’s sustainability commitments and goals. We hope that with this endeavour, we can continue laying the groundwork for forthcoming research initiatives that will help usher in smart and sustainable data center solutions for the future.”
According to IDC, the global edge computing market is facing massive growth, growing at 12.5% annually to an estimated $250.6 billion in 2024. Data centers play a critical role in driving Electricity 4.0 which is the key to changing the trajectory of climate change. As an industry, it is a collective responsibility to drive forward our environmental commitments with extreme urgency. To avoid a major energy challenge, all data centers –including distributed edge data centers --must be more sustainable, efficient, adaptive, and resilient.
The research findings shows that the industry knows sustainability needs to be prioritized but challenges still exist in taking action and will take a collaborative effort to overcome. The good news is the technology to act in sustainability exists today and the time is - NOW.
In addition to releasing these research studies, Schneider Electric announced A new mySchneider IT Partner Program that is designed to help data center and IT professionals make progress towards their sustainability goals.
