Posted by NaviSite

You might have heard a lot about ‘Green IT’ already, but it is surely not a passing fad. Especially with environmental issues flashing on the radar screen of organizations of all sizes and industries around the globe, it has become a reality today. The question is: how many of us are going beyond the talk and actually treading this green path? 

Before we answer this, let’s understand what is Green IT. Simply speaking, it is all about getting innovative in using your IT resources and strategies optimally to make the world cleaner and energy-efficient. It is about taking IT decisions that reduce environmental impacts such as pollution, carbon emissions, e-waste, and the unsustainable use of energy resources. With escalating energy and carbon costs, global climate changes, and stringent environmental and fiscal regulations, organizations across industries are actively seeking ways to reduce their carbon footprint – be it switching over to alternative energy, redesigning their buildings, creating more eco-friendly products, or altering their internal business processes. And IT has a pivotal role in helping them achieve their ‘low carbon’ objectives for greater environmental and business sustainability.  

IT organizations have responded to the environmental needs with multiple ‘greenovations’ – such as creating a green data center design to achieve cooling, processor data storage, and energy efficiency, using virtualization technologies, adopting eco-friendly hardware, going carbon-neutral, and urging others to ‘think green’. According to a recent Gartner research, by 2009, more than one-third of IT organizations will have one or more environmental criteria in their top six buying criteria for IT-related goods and services. The ‘green’ approach further extends to proactively creating IT tools and services needed to drive the eco-efficiency of enterprises – be it enabling remote collaboration using technologies such as videoconferencing and telepresence, tracking energy consumption and emission levels, enabling recycling, or creating eco-friendly processes to meet their business objectives.  

We at NaviSite are keeping pace with the green momentum through multiple initiatives. We are a part of The Green Grid – the global consortium of leading IT companies dedicated to raising energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. Our data centers use the equipment and proprietary monitoring software that cuts the energy consumption needed for cooling by more than 20% over conventional methods. We use virtualization and cooling technologies to offer a more energy-efficient, green environment to customers.

While going green has an attached cost, it is believed the long-term dividend you reap is worth much more than the spend. In today’s downturn economy, are the enterprises willing to pay this premium for ‘Green IT’? 

Posted by NaviSite

Colocation and datacenter services are becoming an increasingly compelling solution for organizations in the leaner economic scenario. Recently, NaviSite launched a new enterprise class data center facility in Woking, UK to meet the rising colocation demand and has already won a contract worth over USD 10 million for providing colocation services through this facility to a leading online European gaming operator. This facility could be expanded up to 70,000 sq feet of datacenter space.

The demand for premium data center and scalable network capacity in the European market is the main catalyst for NaviSite’s expansion plans in the UK colocation market. Gartner research says that some UK colocation providers are experiencing annual increases in demand of 30% or more. Gartner further estimates that in high-demand areas like London, if significant new data center space is not brought on-stream, there will be no free space left by the end of the decade. In fact, this rising demand and limited supply is what is allowing providers to continue to increase pricing. The UK colocation pricing is the highest in Western Europe and would continue to rise at rates higher than inflation for the next couple of years.

The obvious question here is: what is triggering this rising demand for colocation and data center services in the UK market?

While the traditional benefits of colocation – like reduced costs and premium, energy-efficient infrastructure facilities with multiple carriers, better redundancy, improved power and cooling standards, 24×7 monitoring, and enhanced security – remain an attraction for organizations to reach out to the colocation providers, there is an underlying reason why colocation is healthy and growing.

The emergence of internet-driven business models are a key factor behind the push in colocation demand. Today, rising number of UK retailers are focusing on e-commerce opportunities to maximize sales, engage customers, and strengthen their brand. According to Brand Republic, the UK’s leading online business portal, the online shopping sales in the UK exceeded GBP 4 billion a month for the first time in July 2007 – witnessing an annual increase of 36%. Furthermore on current trends it’s predicted that by 2009, 15% of all shopping in the UK will be done on the internet. In the coming years, surging numbers of consumers will continue to go shopping online for everything from eco-friendly white goods to purely digital content to luxury products. Recent Nielsen Media Research stated that 97% of UK people with internet access already shop online. So, organizations want to cash in every tryst of the users with the net, which is now more accessible – be it at home, at workplace, or even while traveling.

This tremendous growth in e-commerce coupled with rising popularity and easy access of internet tools brings along with it the related demand for server space, secure environments and an increased bandwidth demand to support the increasing traffic comprising customers, partners, suppliers or any other key constituents of a business. This is more valid for small and mid-sized companies with large internet traffic volume who need a server environment that is always up and running with minimal outages and yet cannot afford in-house facilities.

So in this world of e-opportunities, the colocation space continues to thrive. And NaviSite continues to lead and redefine this space with its managed data center solutions that are flexible, reliable, and robust – be it utility computing platforms, secure back-up services, on-demand storage, virtual servers, network security solutions, and cloud computing.