The explosion of processing power and the steep reduction in computing costs have led to a dramatic transformation in business computing. With the advent of low-cost servers equipped with multiple and powerful processors, corporate America has built massive data centers to serve its needs as well as those of its customers. 

Recently, however, some unintended consequences of this bounty have become clear: Energy use at these data centers has soared, creating potential environmental costs for society and limiting the ability of businesses to accommodate computing needs. 

From 2000 to 2006, energy use by U.S. servers and data centers, including the power and cooling infrastructure that supports them, more than doubled, according to a report the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency delivered to Congress in August 2007. And if these trends continue unchecked, energy use at these data centers will double again by 2011.

But there is significant potential for technologies and best practices to improve the energy efficiency of servers and data centers, the EPA notes. Indeed, adoption of some of these practices could reduce electricity use by as much as 45 percent to
55 percent compared to current efficiency trends. Such practices include:

 
- Eliminating unused servers and consolidating underutilized ones

- Aggressively adopting new energy-efficient servers

- Enabling power management on all servers

- Improving infrastructure energy efficiency by better managing airflow