Data centers are the biggest challenges facing IT executives in the coming years, Gartner analyst David Cappuccio said in an opening keynote address at the annual Gartner Data Center Conference this week in Las Vegas.

At the top of the list is the dramatic growth expected in enterprise data--650 percent in the next five years, he said.

It will be a big issue because 80 percent of new data will be unstructured. Cappuccio said IT executives will have to make sure the data can be audited and meet regulatory and compliance rules as well as make sure the growing storage demands don't break the bank, he added.

Cappuccio identified 10 key issues for IT managers to keep up with: virtualization; the data deluge; energy and green IT; complex resource tracking; consumerization of IT and social software; unified communications; mobile and wireless; system density; mashups and portals; and cloud computing.

IT executives must pay attention to social networks, too, he said, noting that Twitter use grew at an amazing 1,382 percent in 2008, and the majority of new users are between the ages of 39 and 51.

"It is a growing phenomenon which we can't shut down," he said. "It's affecting you now whether you know it or not" because employees and customers are migrating to social media of all kinds.

Energy is another important issue for every IT to review.

The energy cost of two racks of servers, at full density, can exceed $105,000 a year, he said. At today's prices, the money spent on supplying energy to an x86 server will exceed the cost of that server within three years, he warned.

The to-do list for IT managers is long and getting longer all the time. The time is now to stay in charge and be aware of any curve balls in this ever-changing environment.

For more on data centers:
- see this networkworld.com article

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