As firms strive to balance productivity, innovation and environmental responsibility, the necessity for sustainable IT practices is much more pressing. A brand new global study from the IBM Institute for Business Value shows that latest technologies, particularly generative AI, can play a critical role in driving sustainable IT initiatives. However, successful transformation of IT systems requires a strategic and company-wide approach to sustainability.
The power of generative AI in sustainable IT
Generative AI creates latest opportunities to remodel IT processes and make them more sustainable. Teams can use this technology to quickly translate code into more energy-efficient languages, develop more sustainable algorithms and software, and analyze code performance to optimize energy consumption. 27% of firms surveyed are already using generative AI of their sustainable IT initiatives, and 63% of respondents plan to follow suit by the top of 2024. By 2027, 89% expect to make use of generative AI of their efforts to cut back the environmental impact of IT.
Despite the growing interest in using generative AI for sustainability initiatives, leaders must first consider its broader impacts, particularly energy consumption.
64% say they’re using generative AI and huge language models, but only a 3rd of them say they’ve made significant progress in addressing environmental impacts. To close this gap, leaders must take a thoughtful and intentional approach to generative AI, asking questions like: “What do we’d like to attain?” and “What is the smallest model that may get us there?”
A holistic approach to sustainability
To achieve lasting impact, sustainability have to be integrated into the material of a corporation, breaking away from traditional silos and integrating it into every aspect of operations. Leading firms are already taking this approach, integrating sustainable practices throughout their operations, from data centers to produce chains to networks and products. This enables operational efficiency by optimizing resource allocation and utilization, maximizing performance and minimizing waste.
The results are eye-opening: 98% of firms surveyed that take a holistic, enterprise-wide approach to sustainable IT report seeing advantages in operational efficiency, in comparison with 50% that don’t. The leading organizations also attribute their efforts to greater reductions in energy consumption and costs. Additionally, they report impressive environmental advantages, with their IT carbon footprint reduced by 2x.
Hybrid cloud and automation: key aspects for sustainable IT
Many firms are turning to hybrid cloud and automation technologies to cut back their environmental footprint and improve business performance. By providing insights into data, workloads and applications across multiple clouds and systems, a hybrid cloud platform enables business leaders to make data-driven decisions. This allows them to regulate where they run their workloads, reducing energy consumption and minimizing environmental impact.
In fact, 1 / 4 (25%) of firms surveyed are already using hybrid cloud solutions to extend their sustainability and energy efficiency. Almost half (46%) of them report a major positive impact on the sustainability of their overall IT. Automation also plays a key role in this transformation. 83% of leading firms use its capabilities to dynamically adapt IT environments as needed.
Sustainable IT strategies for a greater future
The way forward for innovation is inextricably linked to a deep commitment to sustainability. As business leaders harness the facility of technology to create impact, responsible decision-making is critical, especially in light of recent technologies like generative AI. To higher manage this interface between IT and sustainability, consider the next actions:
1. Actively control energy consumption related to AI: Optimize the worth of generative AI while minimizing its environmental footprint by actively managing energy consumption from development to deployment. For example, select AI models which might be designed for speed and energy efficiency to process information more effectively while reducing the quantity of processing power required.
2. Identify your environmental impact aspects: Understand how different elements of your IT estate influence environmental impact and the way this will change as you scale latest IT efforts.
3. Embrace the principles of “Sustainable by Design”: Integrate sustainability assessments into the design and planning phases of each IT project by leveraging a hybrid cloud platform to centralize control and gain greater visibility across your entire IT estate.
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