More firms are embracing green IT solutions, but only due to the push for cost-cutting procedures, a business survey has found.

The research, which interviewed 515 companies taking part at the Storage Expo 2008 in London's Olympia this week, noted that 70 per cent believed in green IT as a solid investment, but only if they saved money in the long run.

Only four per cent believed it was a good venture ethically and regardless of the savings potential.

Ten per cent did not see themselves chasing the technological changes provided by environmentally-friendly IT projects as budget cutbacks had made them unviable.

Event manager at Storage Expo 2008 Natalie Booth said: "In today's uncertain economic environment, and with energy usage and prices increasing at a rapid rate, finding ways to reduce power consumption whilst maintaining the growth of one's business is high priority."

Taking place on October 15th to 16th, the Storage Expo aims to provide interested businesses with information about content management, with industry experts and peers on hand to share and develop ideas.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support, London based Connect conducted the research in 2007.