IT ChannelVision Europe: VARs Told The Future Is Green

To a group of about 300 solution providers and system builders from throughout Europe, Kumar said their future rests in their ability to provide clients with energy efficient, also known as green, solutions. "As a business you will be vetted on your green credentials. If you can't prove you are a green business then you will not be able to maintain current clients and attract new ones," Kumar said. "This might now happen today or tomorrow, but it will happen in the near future and you need to be ready."

Kumar explained that system builders and solution providers are a long way from running data centers on wind or solar energy, but there are ways to be energy efficient today.

Gartner research showed that energy costs are typically 10 percent of an overall IT budget and will most likely grow to 20 to 30 percent in the next three years. "That's a significant amount and something that solution providers have to think about trimming and cutting into," Kumar said.

He suggested that service providers work with their clients and make suggestions about how to be green conscious. For example, if the construction of a new data center is underway the solutions provider should suggest the use of energy efficient fixtures and fitting, as well as light, cooling, electrical and mechanical systems, he said. In addition, the service provider could push for a waste management system based on reducing emissions and recycling.

"It's important to get clients to start thinking in this way," Kumar said. Especially since there is a movement to introduce legislation that would require businesses to construct more environmentally friendly data centers, which would require solution providers to significantly modify the programs they present to clients.

Andras Decker, business development director of International System House, a healthcare solutions provider in Hungary, said his company wasn't on board with energy efficiency, but it's the direction "we need to go in." "I didn't realize there were small things we can do now to get started, this a very big opportunity that can distinguish us."

But Bernd Schwefing, COO of Germany-based Controlware GmbH, said offering customers a green solution is only appealing if it saves them money. "Right now they don't care much about being green, they care about the bottom line," said Schwefing, whose clients include large companies and government agencies.

Kumar, however, stressed that offering up something small to clients to get started is better than offering nothing at all. "Your green ability will be the difference in the contracts you win and lose," he said.