Data centers have evolved from simple rooms housing IT equipment to highly complex mission critical facilities. New technologies often outpace the infrastructural resources needed to support the advancements. Deployment of new blade servers and high-density equipment require more power, generate increasing amounts of heat and introduce a complexity unimagined by facility managers just five years ago.

• As of 2006, the electricity use attributable to the nation’s servers and data centers was estimated at about 61 billion kWh, or 1.5% of total U.S. electricity consumption
   
• Power and cooling infrastructure accounted for approximately 50% of a data center’s total energy costs, according to the 2006 EPA report to Congress.
   
• The Uptime Institute reported that a typical IT facility overcools by 2.6 times.
   
• U.S. data centers were estimated to produce 44.4 million metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2007 and, based on historical trends, will produce more than 79 MMT in 2011