Green Networking Equipment Will Have Competitive Edge, Reports In-Stat Mar 18, 2008

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Power consumption and other "green" issues are fast becoming the information technology industry's biggest challenge, reports In-Stat. Inevitably, as these concerns grow, focus will broaden to all types of IT equipment, settling on one of the thirstiest devices: the LAN switch, the high-tech market research firm says.Switch vendors who address energy efficiency earliest have significant opportunities to develop competitive advantage in their respective markets, taking full advantage of the continuing growth in the switch market, the company says.

"As many businesses develop green initiatives using best practices published by organizations like the Green Grid, IT managers will be forced to absorb some degree of responsibility for their organization's power usage," says Victoria Fodale, In-Stat analyst. "The role of energy efficiency will grow considerably in importance for future equipment purchases."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Shipments of power over Ethernet ports, which can consume more than 10-times the energy of standard ports, have tripled since 2005.
• Even among similarly equipped switches, capable of performing identical tasks, there are significant vendor-specific differences in energy efficiency.

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