March 18, 2011 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Major Tech Companies set to be honoured for outstanding environmental performance at UK’s leading Green IT Awards Event.
iomart Hosting, one of the UK’s leading managed hosting and cloud computing companies, is proud to announce that it will be involved with this year’s 2011 UK
Green IT Awards as a headline sponsor.
Now in their second year, the Green IT Awards showcase and reward the technology, tools and solutions as well as the companies and organisations that have made a significant contribution to improving the IT industry's environmental performance over the past 12 months.
Last year's inaugural event proved a huge success, with an array of worthy winners picking up the accolades, including Raritan- Dominion PX for 'Hardware Product of the Year' and Kyocera for 'Green IT Magazine Company of the Year.
This year the Green IT Awards saw the introduction of some new categories to reflect the changes in the industry over the past 12 months. The finalists in each category were announced on March 10th, with some winners to be determined by a public vote and the remaining category winners to be selected by a cross industry panel of judges.
The winners will be unveiled at a gala ceremony to be held at London’s Regents Park Zoo on Thursday 19th May 2011. The awards will be presented to the winners by Catalina McGregor, who has recently been described by Computer Weekly “as one of the most significant drivers of Green ICT in the western world”.
Mrs McGregor is currently The United Nations Agency ITUT JCA Green ICT Liaison Officer to the OECD, EC/EU developing International cooperation, best practice and standards for Smart Cities.
She works with a number of International climate change and environmental groups including Global Action Plan European Leaders in IT (ELIT), The US EPEAT Green Electronics Council and the UK WEEE Directive sub group for the re-use and resale of electronic goods, among other interests.
Catalina McGregor is best known in the UK as The Founder of Her Majesty’s Government Chief Information Officers (CIO) and Chief Technology Officers (CTO) Council Green ICT Delivery Unit.
In another coup for the Awards’ organisers, it has been announced that Rainforest Concern will be the official charity partner for the event.
Peter Bennett, Director of
Rainforest Concern said “What appealed to me about the Green IT Awards Programme is how simple it is in its approach. By highlighting, promoting and rewarding improvements in environmental performance, we give active encouragement and incentive for companies to improve. Advances in technology such as unified communications, virtualisation and cloud computing, coupled with the availability of renewable energy sources, present the industry with many of the ingredients required to genuinely reduce costs.”
Green IT Magazine Publisher Josh Boulton has praised the quality of the companies that have made it through to the final stages. "From the established blue chip Plc’s and large Public Sector organisations through to new and emerging products and technologies we have been astounded as to the quality and scale of some of the projects undertaken in the past 12 months. For anyone that doubted it, this proves Green IT is rapidly becoming a standard business requirement.“
Phil Worms, Marketing Director, iomart Hosting stated: “Over the past twelve months we have witnessed a sea change in the industry’s views on Green IT and sustainability. The topic is no longer perceived as the domain of the ‘tree hugger’ or ‘eco-warrior’ but rather a fundamental element in any organisation’s strategic business plan, and IT has played a major role in this shift in attitude.”
“The internet continues to drive the world’s economy and the demand for computing power keeps rising. The IT industry as a whole, from manufacturers to service providers, is embracing this trend by working harder, smarter and more efficiently. Greener technologies such as virtualisation and cloud based services are emerging to offer viable options to the more traditional inefficient IT architectures.”
Worms added: “We’re delighted to be associated with such a prestigious and important event. The beauty of the Green IT Awards is that they cut through the hype, and provide a showcase for companies that are delivering the ‘double whammy’ of reducing environmental impact whilst delivering tangible fiscal benefit to their businesses. We are looking forward to another exceptional set of winners and a wonderful evening.”
iomart Hosting, who launched the Racks 4 Acres campaign aimed at highlighting the plight of the world’s tropical cloud forests last year, are joined by the BCS The Chartered Institute for IT and Department of Energy and Climate Change as event sponsors.
About 2011 Green IT Awards
Now in their second year, the Green IT Awards showcase and reward the technology, tools and solutions as well as the companies and organisations that have made a significant contribution to improving the IT industry's environmental performance over the past 12 months. This year the organisers have introduced some new categories to reflect the changes in the industry over the past 12 months, and will also be inviting project applications to be considered by a panel of Judges for some other new categories. Many categories will be decided by the public and readers of Green IT Magazine. On line voting in these Categories is now open and closes on 5th May 2011
About Rainforest Concern
Rainforest Concern is a British based conservation charity established to protect threatened natural habitats, particularly rainforests and the biodiversity they contain, together with the people who still depend on them for their survival.
About iomart Hosting
iomart Hosting is one of the UK’s leading providers of managed hosting and cloud services. From single servers through to private cloud networks, iomart Hosting specialises in the delivery and management of mission-critical web and online services, enabling customers to reduce their costs, complexity and risk.
In 2010 iomart Hosting launched the Racks 4 Acres campaign. This innovative ‘Preserving the Clouds" campaign, sees iomart Hosting sponsor an acre of Ecuadorian cloud rainforest for every additional Megawatt of power, post September 2010, that is consumed within its 5 UK Data Centres.
