Further, although enterprises regard social responsibility and business advantages as prime motivators for going green, it is actually a reduction in energy costs that is viewed as more beneficial outcome of a green IT implementation, rather than helping the environment, Springboard said.

"Increase in focus on energy-efficient PCs, servers and storage systems seems to be the most common trend and it represents the majority of surveyed firms' green IT investments," said Silber. "Of the organizations that have plans to implement new green IT initiatives over the next year, the largest percentage have plans to invest in virtualization, whether it be for server, storage, or desktop."