More than nine out of 10 IT professionals would be willing to pay a premium for an IT product or service from a vendor committed to sustainability, according to research from TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group.1
The good news is they don’t have to.
With the latest generation of Dell Technologies PowerEdge servers with 4th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, IT decision makers can get significant benefits in sustainability without having to pay a premium. The advanced power and sustainability features in Dell PowerEdge servers are important factors in reducing total cost of ownership, lowering power consumption and improving overall energy efficiency.
Coupled with Dell’s companywide commitment to environmental, social and governance initiatives, customers can be confident they are lowering costs while also reducing their organization’s environmental footprint and meeting their own sustainability goals.
According to the 2023 Dell Technologies Innovation Index,2 a survey of 6,600 IT and business decision makers, key areas where technology is making businesses more sustainable include:
- Reducing overall IT carbon footprint, cited by 52% of survey respondents.
- Increasing efficiency by leveraging edge computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning for actionable insights (50%).
- Increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy use in the data center (47%).
- Using services to help retire and recycle IT equipment at the end of its lifecycle (47%).
This article discusses why sustainability is of critical importance in choosing a server vendor in 2024, as well as the factors that go into turning a vendor’s commitment to sustainability into a customer’s reality.
Why sustainability, why now?
Sustainability is a priority for most businesses today and an increasingly important factor in making decisions about IT products and vendors. According to a survey by TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group, nearly 95% of respondents said the environmental, social and governance programs of IT suppliers have an impact on their IT product and service purchasing decisions.3
The IT decision makers consistently pointed to a variety of motivations for increasing their commitment to sustainability in their purchase decisions. These included improved brand development, increased profitability, compliance with government mandates, lower operational costs and improved goodwill.
Nearly two-thirds of the survey respondents said they anticipate sustainability will increase in importance and they want to be proactive. More than half said their company is committed to reducing its carbon footprint, and 45% are required by customers and partners to apply ESG assessments to technology suppliers.
When it comes to the technology estate, 87% of respondents said sustainability considerations have motivated their organizations to replace aging IT infrastructure, and 85% said environmental, social and governance concerns have served as a criterion for screening out potential buyers. Among buyers of data center hardware, environmental impact is the most important factor in making environmental, social and governance assessments, cited by 46% of decision makers.
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Download NowWhy Dell PowerEdge servers in 2024?
As IT buyers increase their commitment to sustainability, they are recognizing the importance of working with vendors that are equally committed to environmental, social and governance considerations. In fact, in the Enterprise Strategy Group survey, 85% of IT decision makers said they have eliminated a potential supplier or product due to environmental, social and governance concerns at least once and 42% said it happens regularly.
Among server vendors, Dell has consistently shown leadership in focusing on sustainability. This leadership has been further extended with a number of new sustainability innovations designed into the latest generation of Dell PowerEdge servers with 4th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors.
When it comes to sustainability leadership among server vendors, Dell’s advantages include:
- Dell PowerEdge is the leading server for sustainability as evaluated by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). In fact, Dell is the only server vendor to achieve EPEAT Silver Status. EPEAT evaluates sustainability based on 92 criteria, including energy conservation, product longevity, corporate performance, packing, material selection and more. It’s an increasingly important focus for evaluating server vendors in 2024.
- Dell PowerEdge is the Energy Star leader for servers, with 57 Enterprise Server Certifications—five times that of at least one of its competitors. For example, PowerEdge servers include a modernized thermal design layout and high-performance fans that allow hot air to exit the system quickly and efficiently, preventing overheating of downstream hardware components.
- Dell PowerEdge servers incorporate a wide range of features designed to improve energy use, many of which are not available from other vendors. Top innovations are multivector cooling, direct liquid cooling and Dell Leak Sense. Other key features include a unique thermal design to address heat-producing components and intelligent airflow.
- Dell OpenManage Enterprise Power Manager offers a number of innovative capabilities that reduce power consumption and improve energy efficiency. These include carbon calculation and reporting, staggered emergency power reduction reports, a performance advisor, component-level power reporting and usage reports to identify idle or low-usage servers in mass groups.
Taking the next step
IT teams have a mandate to lower costs, improve efficiencies, reduce complexity and contribute to their organization’s environmental, social and governance initiatives. Dell Technologies and Intel® are equally committed to these goals and have poured that commitment into the design of PowerEdge servers and 4th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors.
For more information on how Dell and Intel® can help your organization in meeting its sustainability goals, please visit Dell Technologies.
1 “Paying a Price Premium for ESG,” TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group, Feb. 21, 2023
2 “Dell Technologies Innovation Index,” February 2023
3 “ESG Research Report: The Role of ESG Programs in IT Decision-Making,” TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group, Sept. 19, 2022
