When an organization is looking to partner with a vendor, there are many factors to consider, and recently, sustainability has been added to that list. Many organizations are now opting to spend more money in order to protect the planet and make more environmentally conscious choices. CloudBolt Industry Insights, the research extension of CloudBolt Software, recently released a survey supporting this shift towards a more sustainable IT industry.
According to CloudBolt, a hybrid cloud management platform provider, the research is based on responses from over 250 technology leaders and points to green conscience as a driving factor in IT decisions. Based on this research, 79% of IT leaders said that they are responsible for ensuring that their companies meet specific sustainability goals. According to CloudBolt, there are three key ways to achieve these objectives: looking into a cloud vendor’s sustainability practices before partnering with them, being willing to spend more money to reach certain sustainability goals, and embracing the growing green conscience that is influencing IT and cloud ops.
Based on this research, the vast majority (78%) of respondents agree that the day-to-day activities they take part in and the cloud choices they make can materially affect the environment, for better or worse. However, to reduce the negative impact these decisions can have, 68% of IT leaders said that they take a cloud vendor’s sustainability initiatives into consideration when deciding whether or not to do business with that vendor. In response to this, many are already doing their part; AWS, Azure, and GCP are among the top vendors taking steps towards a more sustainable future for the IT industry. 79% of IT leaders polled also said they would pay a premium to vendors like these that are incorporating sustainability practices into their business models, 35% stating that they would pay as much as 15% more.
Despite the fact that opting for a more environmentally conscious cloud vendor might cost organizations more initially, research shows that in the long run, sustainable business practices lead to more profits. According to CloudBolt, this is because companies that prioritize sustainability also see operational improvements that lead to higher cash flows.
Cloud management platforms (CMPs) are helping many organizations meet their environmental goals by reducing the amount of energy needed to complete certain business practices. One way these platforms achieve this is by reducing shadow IT. According to Gartner, nearly 40% of all IT spending goes to shadow IT, causing workloads to become unmanageable and increase an organization’s carbon footprint. With a CMP in place, companies can set cost, compliance, and security guardrails to ensure that nothing goes unchecked. In addition to this, organizations should be continuously working on their CI/CD pipelines to ensure their infrastructure is reliable. According to CloudBolt, only 11% of enterprises consider their CI/CD to be reliable. If this pattern continues, it will lead to wasted energy and an increase in an organization’s carbon footprint.
