Green IT is still high on the list of priorities for the majority of organisations, but the driving factor today is cutting costs rather than saving the planet.

A survey of businesses at Storage Expo 2008, currently underway in Olympia, London, found that 70 per cent said that green IT and efficiency is still a priority, provided it also saved money.

Among the remaining respondents, four per cent declared that it was a priority even if there were no cost savings, 10 per cent lamented that budget cuts meant that environmental projects had been scrapped, while four per cent admitted that it had never been a priority. Two per cent were so worried about their job they could not even think about it.

"In today's uncertain economic environment, and with energy usage and prices increasing at a rapid rate, finding ways to reduce power consumption whilst maintaining the growth of one's business is high priority," said Natalie Booth, event manager for Storage Expo 2008.

Speakers at the Architecting for Efficiency keynote from several major storage vendors, including EMC, Hitachi and HP, all agreed that, although the primary reasons behind these green projects may have shifted, the results are essentially the same, which is why the topic has remained high on the agenda of so many enterprises.

Focusing on the environmental benefits of better storage technology, this year's Storage Expo has a dedicated 'Energy Efficiency Zone'.

"The increasing cost of energy is making an energy efficient datacentre an even more compelling proposition, which for storage should be a blend of disk and tape solutions that will optimise performance and energy consumption," said Mick Walker, green computing consultant for IBM's Systems and Technology Group, which is sponsoring the zone.

With budgets now rocketing to the top of the priority list across every bus iness department, IT managers are having to justify every penny, thereby driving projects to focus on the cost saving benefits of the energy efficiencies seen in green deployments, rather than environmental arguments.

"The credit crunch has made a number of businesses rethink their IT strategies and budgets. However, contrary to what most companies think, green IT and beating the credit crunch can go hand in hand if the right strategy is used, " said Booth.

But some maintain that money has always been the primary driver behind green IT projects.

"The underlying motivating factor for green IT has always been saving money, whereas before they've dressed it up in environmental concerns. However, with our more troubled economic times firms can freely admit to their true colours," added René Millman, a senior research analyst at Gartner.