As energy prices began to rise earlier in the decade, many companies got the wakeup call and began aggressively reducing their cost of energy in their transportation and building operations. Now that the economy has put the emphasis on the bottom line, companies are finally realizing the value in reducing their IT energy cost.

The "Greening of IT" has occurred most prominently in the data center, where energy costs can run in the thousands of dollars per month. But in corporate IT departments, the awareness and availability of green products is still hit or miss.

According to a recent survey by Zogby International, just 54 percent of U.S. business leaders say their companies will be much more likely in the future to buy green products that can help to reduce energy costs. This low number is astonishing considering the current emphasis on the bottom line. It's not like computing equipment is a car, where you may have to compromise on performance or comfort for the sake of efficiency.

Even more surprising is that nearly 30 percent of executives queried do not think that IT "can be effective in transforming how their companies manage their environmental and energy concerns." Do these guys not get copies of the utility bills each month?

One area of IT that is showing progress is networking gear, where companies are stepping up with products to reduce their power draw when devices are inactive. Computing products company Netgear just announced switches that the company claims can reduce power consumption by 52 percent. The new switches have an auto power down feature to turn off inactive Ethernet ports, and it even detects the length of the cables connected to provide only the power necessary.

Netgear isn't the only company switching to more green networking equipment. Last week, Juniper Networks announced its own energy efficient Ethernet switch, while Cisco developed software for its switches that will monitor and reduce power consumption.

There is plenty of room for energy savings throughout the enterprise, and we are only scratching the surface. On the server side, companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems are now touting "eco" models, but the details on what sets their products apart from previous products is sorely lacking today.

IT folks are all about the numbers, so we need more details about how much less power these boxes consume, or how they reduce energy costs because they require less cooling. Instead of processors speeds, IT managers will soon be concerned about energy consumption. PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) is the new MHz.