CIOs need to show leadership in Reducing IT Costs

As Carbon Tax comes into play, CIOs will be confronted with the herculean task of containing Information and communication technologies (ICT) costs and also keep in check the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, reports Rebecca Merrett of CIO Magazine.

Steve Hodgkinson, Research Director, Ovum Australian and New Zealand is of the opinion, "The first thing that needs to be done is for the CIO to be accountable for the energy costs of at least the major ICT facilities and to start measuring and making these costs transparent and then creating activities to shape behavior to reduce energy use and to invest in more energy efficient infrastructure when the opportunity arises."

As such, CIOs need to procure a new set of skills that not only portrays their expertise in energy management systems but also proves to be resourceful in the management of energy consumption of a company.

As a result, it is expected of a CIO to delve themselves in the exploration of novel innovative techniques and procedures through which a credible system of monitoring the cost and usage of carbon footprints can be established.

Hodgkinson also feels that CIOs can turn toward Cloud as a tool to ensure the optimization of energy consumed within an organization and hence keep a tap on the expenditure incurred on it. He says, "CIOs can show innovation by assessing the benefits of Cloud services for their organizations and moving appropriate services into the Cloud sooner rather than later - in effect outsourcing most of the ICT energy/emissions obligations to a Cloud service provider that is better equipped to cope with the challenges."

Therefore, it is the CIO that has to see to the fact that the energy usage within an organization is minimized, not only to escape regulatory compliance bills but also do their part towards a cleaner and greener environment, Afterall, isn't that the issue in the first place?