Oliver Wyman, a global strategy consultancy, was engaged by Network Appliance to determine the implications of storage decisions on power, cooling, and space within data center environments. The findings included in this study are Oliver Wyman’s, based exclusively on interviews with storage and facility managers and IT executives from large enterprises across various industries and geographies.

“Green IT” is a popular concept today, as data centers worldwide face rising costs for power, cooling, and space and companies strive to meet public demand for improved environmental stewardship. Many IT organizations, however, are just starting to understand the influence that their IT purchase decisions have on data center power, cooling, and space consumption. This paper explores that link, with a particular emphasis on the impact of storage solutions.