Information-technology managers at colleges need to cut their purchasing budgets to save money — at the same time they need to purchase energy-efficient equipment, also to save money. According to a survey by CDW-G, a large company that buys technology for government and higher-education institutions, some are managing to do both.
It’s not a random sample, or a large one, but it does provide one view of the college IT world.
The survey included 152 IT managers in higher education with purchasing power. Of those people, 54 percent said they had reduced technology-related energy costs in 2009, compared with 38 percent in 2008.
The managers identified three major sources for the cost savings. The first is buying liquid-crystal-display monitors. No. 2 is getting employees to shut down equipment when not in use. And the third is purchasing devices with the federal government’s Energy Star rating for energy-efficient machines. For a real-world illustration of a college trying to save energy in its computing operations, look at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Green Computing Guide.
