Environmental Leader

According to an IDC report, European data centers are facing an energy crisis, with energy consumption growing by more than 13 percent between 2006 and 2007, the Industry Standard reports.

IT firms have been inundated with advice and products to cut energy use and increase efficiency, but the report shows that energy consumption by data center facilities is expected to grow again this year, from over 40 terawatt hour in 2007 to more than 42 terawatt hour in 2008.

Nathaniel Martinez, program director for European Enterprise Servers, told the Industry Standard that he foresees a scenario where every euro spent on new server capacity in 2012 could require a further 80 cents to power the existing infrastructure.

Although the cost of powering data centers worldwide may grow from $18,5 billion in 2005 to $250 by 2012, Bob Worral, chief information officer at Sun Microsystems, says that there is no better time than now to focus investment on more energy-efficient data centers.