If altruism doesn't motivate you, surging power demands might convince you that it's time to make your data center a green one. Green data centers don't just save energy, they also reduce the need for expensive infrastructure upgrades to deal with increased power and cooling demands. To start reducing power consumption in existing data centers without making a huge investment, start by consolidating servers. Companies can save up to $1,200 in energy costs for each physical server decommissioned each year. The next step is moving as many server-based applications as is feasible into virtual machines. That allows IT to substantially reduce the number of physical servers required while increasing the utilization levels of remaining servers. Most physical servers today run at about 10 to 15 percent utilization. Since an idle server can consume as much as 30 percent of the energy it requires at peak utilization, you get more bang for your energy dollar by increasing utilization levels. Also, use power management tools, which can further increase savings. And consider upgrading to energy-efficient servers, which use much less power and offer greater performance. Other suggestions include going with high-efficiency power supplies, making IT organizations accountable for energy efficiency and following standards for power consumption and energy efficiency.

Learn more about the greening of the data center:
- read the article at ComputerWorld

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- and this on the importance of green technology