David Galton-Fenzi, Zycko's Group Sales Director commented: "Last year Green IT was a key business issue, with organisations becoming increasingly interested in how new products could help them to reduce their carbon footprints. But this year the debate appears to have progressed, with the focus now on technologies that provide quick returns and cost savings, by being greener, more efficient and less wasteful."
Organisations are also turning to technologies such as virtualisation, which enables them to maximise existing assets. As new players such as Virtual Iron enter the marketplace, they bring with them the ability to drive down costs even further than the initial technology pioneers, making innovations like virtualisation available to a wider customer base. By moderating sprawl and in turn reducing power and cooling requirements, companies will save money on their energy bills, once again proving that the best cost saving measures are usually also the most environmentally friendly.
Faced with unprecedented requirements to justify every spending decision, IT directors are increasingly turning to optimisation technology, which allows for more efficient collaboration and deployment of the IT infrastructure. A good example of this is WAN optimisation, such as Riverbed's Steelhead appliances. These products have been selling like hotcakes this year, primarily because of their ability to reduce capital expenditure through consolidation and increase productivity through application acceleration. As Riverbed technology offers organisations the opportunity to defer bandwidth spending by up to five years, financial directors can avoid committing to these upgrades until the business environment has stabilised.
Another technology that has received increased attention recently is videoconferencing. These facilities have fast become a corporate necessity as financial directors cut or freeze travel budgets. Videoconferencing is an obvious way in which to reduce costs and results in increased staff satisfaction and productivity, as well as keeping carbon emissions down by dramatically reducing air and road travel requirements. Demand for Lifesize HD videoconference and telepresence solutions has skyrocketed, as public and private sector organisations adopt this technology to limit travel expenses and improve business performance.
David Galton-Fenzi continues: "Battening down the hatches and doing nothing has never been the right strategy during a recession. There is a clear market opportunity and resellers are focussing on smart spending for both their own businesses and their clients, to ensure they survive the financial storm.
"Resellers have recognised that now is the time to demonstrate their value. Those who are effectively delivering solutions which find the balance between keeping costs down and meeting business needs, are in a better position to sell more, earn more and inevitably emerge on top when the recession ends. There has never been a better time to sell many of Zycko's chosen vendor partners."