Planning, other tools for the job

He suggests pre-empting problems by implementing dedicated power and space planning programs such as Visual Network Design Inc.'s Rackwise and Aperture Technologies Inc.'s Vista. He adds that applications such as Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Insight Power Manager track ongoing consumption.

John Rowell, chief technology officer at OpSource Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., says not planning ahead of time leads to cost issues down the road. "For larger server deployments, you really have to become a power expert, otherwise you'll get burned on costs," he says.

OpSource, a software-as-a-service provider, expanded its data centers during 2005 and 2006, increasing the pool of blade servers to more than 850 and sending the power demand through the roof. Coupled with the rising price of power during that time, he says costs increased by more than two and a half times what they started with.

Rowell says that because they had agreements in place with customers before that time, they were unable to pass the costs along to customers. "We've had to soak up a lot of those fees," he says.