In the data center market, the need for green technology solutions to reduce energy consumption is rapidly becoming imperative. That’s according to executives who gathered for a panel Wednesday during Computerworld’s Storage Networking World conference.

 

Going green is no longer just a matter of moral rightness or social responsibility, Computerworld reported. It is now becoming a business necessity for data center operations to know how much energy each device consumes and to find ways of reducing that energy consumption. It simply costs too much to not do so.

 

“If you use more energy [than presently] and it's more expensive, expect your costs to go up,” said Andrew Fanara, team leader for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star Product Specifications Development Group. “These problems will intensify.”

 

Last month, Computerworld reported, the EPA said it is working on a benchmark to help IT managers compare their own energy usage with that of other data center operations. A server specification should be complete by year’s end, with a green storage benchmark (in development by the Storage Networking Industry Association) expected even sooner.