Turning the energy crisis into opportunity

With energy prices escalating across the globe, most businesses are having to pay more for the energy they use.  The impact of that on businesses is clear: weakening margins, reducing their ability to invest, and in some cases a need to streamline in order to survive.  But how are those escalating prices impacting the executives at organizations?

For network operators and high technology companies, the impact of prices has been direct with 69% of network providers reporting that they have raised prices to pass on heavier costs directly to customers.  Our latest research, which was conducted in the US, UK, France and Germany, entitled “The energy crisis: is it hurting enterprise networks?” explores the business and personal impact of the energy crisis.

Higher prices were, perhaps predictably, the key issue for European businesses’ network operations – with concern peaking among German leaders at 66%. An overwhelming 82% of leaders stated that increased energy costs in the network have had a medium or high impact on the way they price their own services.

Whilst many leaders admitted that the energy crisis and surge in prices has caused them significant personal stress (45%), networking operators were at pains to point out that they were not going to be beaten down by the problem, with 61% increasing investment in the network operations to bring about improved energy efficiency.

More broadly, this all feeds into the need for greater sustainability efforts across the sector, and many of the businesses spoken to for the report believe that new energy sources will play a significant role in improving their sustainability efforts – 40% believe clean, renewable solar power will be the source of choice. This view is obviously a bit puzzling considering the intermittent nature of solar power. Successful network operation depends upon a reliable and consistent source of energy and until we see a paradigm shift in battery technology, solar and wind are essentially just complementary power sources.

The energy price hikes have been painful for all on a personal and professional level, but network operators and enterprise network owners are using it as a springboard to a cleaner and more sustainable future.  Why not download the report and see how the results compare to your experiences at “The energy crisis: is it hurting enterprise networks?”

Mattias Fridström, Chief Evangelist