The pressure’s certainly on for IT directors to keep an eye on their IT budgets and to ensure that, going forward, their IT’s sustainable and green. But surely - at least in some areas - can’t green also mean lean?An interesting point raised at this week’s Environmental IT Leadership Team meeting - which Verbatim attended - was that IT directors are tired of seeing suppliers produce short life cycle, feature-heavy, throwaway IT devices and software. Increasingly, IT directors are looking to buy ‘stripped-down’ devices and ‘lite’ operating platforms which don’t require new PC estates to be bought each time they upgrade. A trend - it would seem - mirrored in the consumer market as laptops such as Asus’ tiny Open-Office based EeePC are doing a roaring trade.

In short, have we reached the top of the bell curve when it comes to complex devices and feature heavy operating systems?

Are we going to see a return to simplicity and ‘de-featured’ procurement strategies?