Big banks have won public praise for their efforts to go green with their data centers (data center news), which are undeniably energy pigs. Citigroup (NYSE: C), HSBC and PNC are among those who have generated PR points for their efforts. But the data center still presents a huge opportunity for big banks. IBM notes some eye-opening facts: 70 percent of the average IT budget today is spent to main existing infrastructure versus adding new capabilities, 85 percent of computing capacity may sit idle on any given day, only three of 100 units of energy piped into a datacenter are used for actual computing. 

So more banks will be facing the need to green up now, to cut costs, gain efficiencies and generate earned media in the process. IBM has three pieces of advice:

• Know yourself, and at least how much energy your need. Only then can you start to go green,
• Optimize with various technologies, such as virtualization and system cooling technologies. And,
• Consolidate data center operations to the extent possible, even if that means shifting your main data center farther away, to the extent possible.  

For more:
- here's the commentary in Bank Technology News

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