Energy efficiency and corporate social responsibility will become increasingly important to IT managers, one expert has claimed.

John-Paul Kamath, deputy technology editor for Computerweekly.com, explained that it is important that IT managers embrace change of their own accord as the sector could be subject to legislation in future.

He said: "The IT industry does use a lot of energy, and so in time - say in the next ten years - there's the real possibility that governments will look towards the IT industry specifically, and start looking at ways in which they can cut down energy use in that specific sector."

Mr Kamath added that as 'going green' becomes more of an issue for companies, IT departments might find it is an issue that they have to deal with on a regular basis.

In January, a report by the Butler Group stated that those involved in the industry need to look beyond "marketing hype" and address real environmental issues.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent) In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'.