Green IT too complex says Calyx

The integrator pushes vendors to straighten out mixed messages

Anthony Young: Bell suggets its customers look past the commercial spin.

Integrator Calyx has called on vendors to sort out their green IT messages, as businesses in the capital are increasingly twitchy about the power crunch.

Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort recently announced that it is moving out of its Docklands premises and taking action against the continual power losses its data centre suffers.

Andy Butcher, head of service development at Calyx Group, said: “Businesses do not see the benefits of green IT at the moment. Vendors are creating confusion over which products do what and the long-term effects they can have.”

Butcher believes there is insufficient power to cope with demand from the UK’s expanding data centres, which were originally designed in the late 80s and early 90s.

“Rising energy costs, not legislation, will make businesses change to a greener strategy because London is running out of power,” he said.

Anthony Young, director of the services and security division at distributor Bell Micro, said: “There are a lot of green messages around, but I have not heard a concrete plan to sit a customer down and tell them how they can reduce their power consumption.

“Relocating a company is a big decision, so Bell works with its vendors and its resellers to prevent this. Bell suggests its customers look past the commercial messages out there.”

Jason Beeson, solutions sales director at storage distributor Hammer, said: “We work in an energy inefficient industry, and at Hammer we inform our customers of the green issues that are affecting them and the channel’s aims to change this.

“Hammer has invested in an environmental advisor as support for our resellers in understanding the environmental legislations to which they need to adhere.”