AFCOM will host two sessions on cyber terrorism during the conference. Unfortunately, in a bad economy companies that already have security plans “tend to say what we have is good enough,” Eckhaus says. “They’re really at the very beginning stages.”

Even beyond security, public scrutiny of data centers seems to be increasing, as the 24/7 business world expects computer systems that never fail or slow down. Eckhaus says this is both good and bad for data center managers, because the public is recognizing the important work they do, but also demanding more.

“This is a really unique time, because for the first time in history the data center is in the public eye,” Eckhaus says. “People are starting to understand how vital data centers are. We could not do business as usual without data centers.”

Corporate management is demanding that data centers run more efficiently, both to save money on power costs and to appear environmentally friendly in the public eye, Echuas notes. Going green is important, in part because providing enough power and cooling to data centers is becoming more difficult, she says. But the IT industry is “saturating” data center managers with the green buzzword, she says.

“It’s a buzzword that’s been around for a few years, because the data center sucks up so much energy,” Eckhaus says. “Corporate management is really looking down at the data center now and saying ‘what are you going to do.’”