This is according to a survey of 324 IT executives commissioned by storage software vendor BridgeHead Software. The report revealed that only 35 percent of respondents said their storage technology choices take into consideration environmental friendliness. However, a whopping 88 percent said storage vendors should be doing more to increase the energy efficiency of their products.

This is the first time the study, in its third year, has touched on the issue of "green IT."

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Cost was still the primary driver for purchasing, according to Patrick Dowling, senior vice president of product strategy and development at BridgeHead, based in Woburn, Mass.

"The study found that while companies are interested in reducing carbon footprints, it is not surprising that business-focused IT executives are more concerned with the business issues, such as reducing costs through energy consumption of their storage systems. Sixty-one percent said almost half of their data was residing on their primary storage system, which is using the most energy and therefore costing the most money."

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Dowling said many users had still not adopted an ILM (information lifecycle management) policy, which would help them organize and archive the correct data, saving costs and, he said, by happy coincidence, also lowering many firms' carbon footprints.

Claus Egge, program director for storage at IDC, said there isn't a shortage of technology. "Maybe end users should look closer to home before they start blaming the vendors. There are lots of ILM and consolidation products out there. I wouldn't say that the director of Friends of the Earth has anything to complain about lack of choice in the storage world," he said.

"There is almost too much choice, which is stifling the market and creating a place where end users do not know what to choose that is right for them. This is causing confusion, which may be why end users are blaming the vendors. The other point is that an inefficient storage system is not a critical issue for customers when they are prioritizing an IT strategy," Egge said.