Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo! and eBay represent new breed of data center efficiency

Highly efficient data centers are increasingly collaborating with not only with organization's facilities and IT operations, but with consultants, vendors and utilities.

A report from 451 Research examined new developments in data center design, energy management, cooling and deployment at 24 of the world's most energy-efficient data centers, most of which were Uptime Institute Green Enterprise IT Award winners or honorees.

"Tightly integrating the various moving parts of a data center project, such as the parallel design of cooling and IT systems, can lead to results beyond what is possible with a piecemeal approach," said Rhonda Ascierto, senior analyst in 451 Research's Datacenter Technologies and Eco-Efficient IT practices and lead author of the report.

Large Internet-related companies, such as eBay, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo!, represent a new breed taking an integrated approach to achieve significant energy efficiency to cost-effectively meet growing data center demand, according to the research. The proliferation of internet and cloud computing services will continue to place increased demand and public focus on data center operations.

The research further concluded that power and cooling will remain the top targets for efficiency. While free cooling is proliferating, operators are being far more cautious with direct current power distribution.

For more:
- see the award winners and honorees

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