Sept. 15, 2008 - Research firm Gartner is predicting a muddled approach to green IT investment "for years to come," as companies struggle to identify the best ways to allocate their technology budgets.

"The IT industry is saturated with green IT talk," says Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner. "Conferences, presentations and consultants are springing up to provide guidance and advice on a range of issues that are being codified under the generic term of green IT. With so much hype, users are left with a sense of confusion about where and when they should invest their time and money."

Gartner recommends firms categorize green IT initiatives into short-, medium-, and long-term activities in order to clearly focus on the necessary technologies and legislation:

Immediate or short-term green IT issues. These center on power, cooling, and floor space problems in datacenters and office environments which need addressing over the next 24 months. Areas to focus on include using virtualization technologies for server consolidation, energy management solutions for the office and software environments, and the use of modeling and monitoring software.

Medium-term green IT issues. During the next two to five years, many green technologies such as vidoeconferencing and green asset lifecycle programs will become important for IT groups looking to develop greener IT organizations. However, firms should act early in planning and evaluating costs as part of an overall IT strategy and as part of the organization's CSR program. Areas to focus on include green IT procurement, environmental labeling of servers and other devices, green accounting in IT, and green legislation in datacenters.

Long-term green IT issues. Much of the longer-term green IT issues that will span the next five to 20 years include technologies and issues that are still in their infancy and are causing confusion for users. They are unclear about whether carbon-trading programs will become the norm, or whether it will be possible to recycle energy from datacenters in a simple and cost-effective way. Gartner advises companies focus on areas such as carbon offsetting and alternative energy sources, dataceneter heat recycling, and green building design over the long term.

Confusion may be the cause for much of the indifference reported across the industry. A recent report claimed more than half of IT managers say the costs of implementing green IT initiatives are still too high, while another recent report found 10% of IT execs aren't giving energy efficiency any notice.